In August 2023, a former neonatal nurse, Lucy Letby, was convicted of the murder of seven babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital, and the attempted murder of seven more. Last week, at a press conference in London, the outcomes of a review of the cases by an international panel of 14 experienced clinicians, of which I am one, were released. We identified issues at the level of individuals and teams, and systemic issues within the NHS, but our conclusions were that there was no evidence of malfeasance, and there were highly plausible causes of death or deterioration in each of the cases that either went unrecognised or were managed suboptimally. We provided examples of these likely causes of death or deterioration, and will be providing full details relating all the cases to Lucy Letby’s legal team.
The implications of these diametrically opposed conclusions have left the nation with a deep sense of unease. My anxieties were first raised when I was contacted during the trial by several journalists who asked my opinion on the alleged causes of death. I was then invited by Dr Shoo Lee to join the international panel, and on being formally instructed received full details of all the cases. The story that emerged from reading the medical records and witness statements was hugely concerning, and quite different from that presented in court. That miscarriages of justice occur is a matter of record; think of Sally Clark, Andrew Malkinson, Hillsborough, and the falsely convicted sub-postmasters. Could Letby be another addition to a distressing roll call, and if so, how could this have occurred? Certainly, there appear to have been a series of errors, each following on from the previous one.
