A senior nursing manager has been suspended by an NHS trust following the trial of nurse Lucy Letby.
Letby, 33, was on Friday found guilty of the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of six more - making her the most prolific child serial killer in modern British history.
The crimes happened while she was on duty on the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015 and 2016.
Letby’s trial at Manchester Crown Court heard consultants raised concerns about Letby, but were told by hospital bosses to apologise to her formally in writing.
The nurse was identified as the common link between the deaths of a series of babies, but doctors say they were met with silence from hospital bosses and regret not reporting her to the police sooner.
The NHS on Sunday confirmed Alison Kelly, then-director of nursing and quality at the Countess of Chester Hospital, has been suspended by the Northern Care Alliance NHS Trust in Greater Manchester, where she is understood to now hold a similar role.
Letby’s murderous campaign against babies in her care will now be the the subject of an independent inquiry, amid growing clamour for as explanation as to why she was not stopped sooner.
An NHS England spokesperson said: “We welcome the independent inquiry announced by the Department of Health and Social Care into the events at the Countess of Chester and will cooperate fully to help ensure all lessons are learned.
“In light of information that has emerged during the trial of Lucy Letby, and the announcement of the independent inquiry, the Northern Care Alliance has suspended Alison Kelly.”
Nicky Clarke, chief people officer at Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, said: “I can confirm Alison Kelly has been suspended. We are unable to comment any further at this moment in time.”
Consultants who raised concerns about Letby as far back as 2015 have said babies could have been saved if Countess of Chester management had listened and acted sooner. But police were only contacted in 2017.
There was a significant rise in the number of babies suffering serious and unexpected collapses in the hospital’s neonatal unitin 2015 and 2016.
The Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit head consultant, Dr Stephen Brearey, first raised Letby’s association with an increase in baby collapses in June 2015.
He told the Guardian that deaths could arguably have been avoided from as early as February 2016 if executives had “responded appropriately” to an urgent meeting request from concerned doctors.
But Letby was not removed from the unit until after the deaths of two triplet boys and the collapse of another baby boy on three successive days in June 2016.
Letby was confined to clerical work and in September 2016 registered a grievance procedure.
It emerged during legal argument in the trial – in the absence of the jury – that the grievance procedure was resolved in Letby’s favour in December 2016.
Letby was due to return to the neonatal unit in March 2017, but the move did not take place as soon afterwards, police were contacted by the hospital trust.
She was suspended on full pay from the moment she was arrested in July 2018.
It is understood she was sacked when she was charged in November 2020.
Retired consultant paediatrician Dewi Evans - the prosecution’s lead medical expert in the case - has said hospital executives who failed to act on concerns about the serial killer nurse should be investigated for corporate manslaughter.
He said he would write to Cheshire Constabulary to ask it to investigate “grossly negligent” bosses for not acting on fears about Letby while she was on a killing spree, the Observer reported.
Bosses also blamed other NHS services for a number of the unexplained deaths – and in a review in May 2016 said there was “no evidence whatsoever against [Letby] other than coincidence”, the newspaper reported.
Letby was expected to be handed a whole life sentence at Manchester Crown Court on Monday, but the serial killer indicated she would not take part in the hearing.
Dr Nigel Scawn, medical director at the Countess of Chester Hospital, said on Friday: “Since Lucy Letby worked at our hospital, we have made significant changes to our services and I want to provide reassurance to every patient that may access our services that they can have confidence in the care that they will receive.”
