Demands for a statutory inquiry into the Lucy Letby murders have intensified after a bereaved family accused the hospital of “a total fob off” when they pleaded for answers.
The parents, whose newborn son was murdered and his twin poisoned, said they tried repeatedly to meet the hospital’s medical director but their calls went unanswered.
Richard Scorer, a solicitor at the law firm Slater and Gordon, which represents the family, said it was “shameful” that the medical director, Ian Harvey, had failed to respond properly to the parents’ concerns.
He told the Guardian: “It seems that Ian Harvey had little interest in passing any meaningful information to the parents, responding properly to any of their concerns, or complying with any duty of candour to them.
“In our view this failure to address parental concerns was shameful and another matter which needs to be investigated by a statutory inquiry with the power to compel witnesses and the production of documents.”
Harvey retired as medical director weeks after Letby’s arrest in July 2018 and now lives in the south of France.
In response to the allegations, Harvey told the Guardian: “Having read the heart-rending victim impact statements, I know how desperate the parents are for answers and I will help them as best I can at the public inquiry.
“I’m sorry they felt fobbed off. I wanted to give detailed and accurate answers, but this was difficult while the reviews and investigations were taking place. Once the police were involved, we were advised by them not to say or do anything that might jeopardise their investigation.”
He said he was told that any communication had to go through the police family liaison officers and not the hospital, adding: “I apologise for not communicating that clearly enough at the time.”
Rishi Sunak is under increasing pressure to strengthen the independent inquiry into the handling of concerns about Letby by executives at the Countess of Chester hospital.
Senior doctors first alerted an executive to the nurse’s connection to three unexplained sudden deaths in June 2015 – a year before she was finally removed from the neonatal unit.
Letby, 33, was sentenced to a whole-life term on Monday, meaning she will never be released from prison, for the murder of seven babies and attempted murder of another six. She was found not guilty of two counts of trying to kill a baby girl and the jury was unable to reach verdicts in relation to four other infants.
The parents of twins, who can only be named as Child E and Child F, on Tuesday added to the growing calls for the inquiry to be made statutory so it could compel witnesses to testify under oath.
Scorer, the head of abuse and public inquiries at Slater and Gordon, said the family made “many attempts” to contact Harvey for answers about why Child E died and his twin brother deteriorated in August 2015 – but that “despite many attempts to get through to him they never received a return call”.
Instead, the family was in early 2017 sent a series of “anodyne” letters – which have been seen by the Guardian – which contained no proper explanation of the suspicious incidents. Scorer said: “Our clients have described his response as a ‘total fob off’.”
The parents said they made repeated attempts to call Harvey between February and April 2017, and left messages on a number he provided in his initial letter. Despite repeated calls to his secretary, they claim Harvey never returned their call. The police investigation began in May 2017.
The boys’ mother told Letby’s sentencing hearing on Monday that they were trapped in a “living nightmare” after their son’s “unimaginable and devastating” murder in August 2015.
The poisoning of his twin brother had left him with severe learning difficulties, she said, adding that the trial had helped them understand for the first time what happened to her children.
“We now have every raw and graphic detail to process in the coming months. Nothing can change what has happened to us. We are living with a life sentence because of Lucy’s crimes,” she added.
In a statement after the verdicts on Friday, Harvey said he would cooperate with any inquiry and added: “At this time my thoughts are with the babies whose treatment has been the focus of the trial and with their parents and relatives who have been through something unimaginable.”
Dr Stephen Brearey, the consultant paediatrician who first raised the alarm about Letby, added to the calls for a statutory inquiry on Tuesday.
He called for the inquiry to examine the role of the General Medical Council (GMC) and said the regulator had “failed doctors and patients” by not conducting a proper investigation into Harvey.
Brearey and three of his consultant paediatrician colleagues made a formal misconduct complaint to the GMC about Harvey in 2018.
It alleged that Harvey failed to act on concerns about Letby despite the rising number of baby deaths and misled the public when he said, in February 2017, that there was “no single cause or factor identified to explain the increase in mortality numbers”.
Two reviews at this time had called for further forensic investigations into several unexplained deaths, in relation to which Letby was later found guilty of murder.
Brearey said the GMC “hadn’t bothered” to examine the evidence or speak to the three other consultants who submitted the complaint before it closed the investigation.
Harvey told the regulator he would “vigorously” defend himself but did not answer the allegations specifically, according to a copy of the complaint seen by the Guardian. The GMC cleared him with no case to answer in May 2022.
The former orthopaedic surgeon gave up his licence to practise when he retired to France in 2018 and in 2020 he gave up his registration with the GMC.
On the GMC investigation, Harvey said on Tuesday: “Given the circumstances, I feel that there can be no doubt that the GMC conducted a thorough investigation. On 3 May 2022, the GMC informed me that they had concluded their investigation and that the case was closed with no further action.”
Dr Ravi Jayaram, a senior paediatrician at the Countess of Chester hospital, said in an email to a GMC investigating officer on 6 May 2022 that it was “patently obvious that there has been no effort at all on the part of the GMC” to examine the evidence.
He added: “To conclude there is ‘no evidence when in reality there has been little if any attempt to look for evidence inspires very little confidence in the ability of the GMC to be able to fulfil its core duty to protect patients.”
Anthony Omo, the GMC’s director of fitness to practise, said the regulator had “thoroughly examined all relevant information” and had decided that the case did not reach the threshold for a referral to a medical tribunal.
Omo said: “We do not take our decision-making responsibility lightly, and realise that reporting concerns about fellow healthcare professionals can be a very difficult process.
“We offer support to whistleblowers, including a confidential helpline, staffed by specially trained advisers, which helps doctors to raise concerns or ask for advice if they do not feel able to do so locally.
“We welcome the announcement of an independent inquiry, which will look more closely at these events, and we will of course participate with that inquiry.”
