The recent conviction of Lucy Letby, the neonatal nurse who murdered seven infants and attempted to murder six others while working at the Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015-2016, has raised fundamental questions about how something like this could have happened – and why it took so long to stop her.
The fact is attempts were made to stop her. Two medical consultants, Dr Stephen Brearey and Dr Ravi Jayaram, both raised concerns about unexplained infant deaths as early as July 2015. By October 2015, both brought specific concerns about Letby, who had been on duty during each of the deaths, to the senior director of nursing.
But both have related how they were rebuffed by hospital management at each stage of the process. Dr Jayaram even revealed he was told by management “not to make a fuss”. It wasn’t until June 2016, after repeated complaints, that Letby was finally removed from her clinical duties.
