Families of some of Lucy Letby’s victims are calling for CCTV on neonatal wards, tighter control of insulin in hospitals and more protection for NHS whistleblowers, their lawyer has said before a public inquiry begins next week.
The Thirlwall inquiry, which starts on Tuesday, has been set up to examine what happened at the Countess of Chester hospital, where Letby worked. She has been convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven more while based there as a neonatal nurse.
It emerged that consultants repeatedly raised concerns that Letby may have been behind a series of unexplained deaths.
The inquiry will consider the experiences of the parents of Letby’s victims, look into the conduct of staff at the hospital and assess whether suspicions should have been raised earlier, whether Letby should have been suspended earlier and whether the police should have been brought in sooner.
The inquiry will examine wider NHS culture and consider the effectiveness of its management and governance structures. Chaired by the senior court of appeal judge Lady Justice Thirlwall, it is expected to last about four months, with a report to be released next year.
Tamlin Bolton, of Switalskis Solicitors, representing six of the affected families, said on Thursday that the inquiry was “vitally important”.
“Lucy Letby killed and harmed more children than any other serial killer,” Bolton said. “She had the longest criminal trial in England and Wales. How you cannot listen to the concerns expressed by the consultants on the neonatal unit, following that criminal trial and that verdict, must be investigated and this is absolutely the forum in which to do it.”
She said the families were “looking for transparency, accountability, and that there are recommendations … [so] that it won’t happen again in the future. Or that if it does, there’s a mechanism, a really robust system in place, so that people can escalate concerns about staff members without being worried about losing their jobs, that they won’t try to be silenced.”
Among some of the specific requests from the families, she said, are for CCTV to be installed on neonatal wards, and for medicines and drugs that can cause harm to patients to be more tightly controlled within hospitals.
The previous government announced that it would be a statutory inquiry, meaning it has the power to force witnesses to give evidence and can order the release of documents. “It’s vital that it is [statutory],” Bolton said. “It’s a really important decision because it compels witnesses to give evidence.”
Although the families involved have already sat through lengthy criminal trials, Bolton said they were entering the inquiry process feeling “hopeful”.
She said they were “hopeful that the evidence that’s given will answer a lot of outstanding questions for them, hopeful that there will be some accountability at the end, that people will stand up and say ‘I should have done this, I should have done this differently’.”
Bolton said speculation in the media and online around Letby’s conviction was having an impact on the families.
“Those who’ve had sight of the full remit of evidence, the jurors and the court of appeal have all maintained her guilt, and anything outside of that, where you haven’t read, seen or heard all of the evidence, is just speculation,” she said. “We would encourage people to look at the court of appeal judgment and really consider it properly.”
