Letby doctor: consultants should have gone to police sooner — SkimNews
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- Dr. John Gibbs, a consultant paediatrician at the Countess of Chester Hospital, told the BBC the 822-page Thirlwall Inquiry report makes for 'grim reading' and that consultants should have been 'brave enough' to escalate suspicions about Letby to police earlier, accepting 'collective' responsibility.
- Gibbs identified a specific team failure: a colleague who disregarded August 2015 blood test results suggesting a baby had been poisoned with insulin, adding that others on call over the following weeks 'all had the opportunity to review the notes.'
- Lady Justice Thirlwall's report found hospital managers repeatedly dismissed consultants' concerns and that police 'should have been notified earlier,' describing 'a complete failure to protect babies on the neonatal unit' — with several 'missed opportunities' to intervene, including a cluster of three baby deaths in June 2015.
- Gibbs described the 11 months after Letby was moved to administrative duties as 'very tense, very stressful,' saying managers 'were determined to ensure that we accepted Lucy Letby had been wrongly suspected of doing any harm.'
- The report calls for urgent reforms including CCTV for all cots and incubators and restricting insulin access; Health Secretary Yvette Cooper said officials will 'urgently develop plans' to introduce live-streaming cameras on England's baby wards.
- Gibbs said online misinformation supporting Letby has been 'frustrating and difficult,' but acknowledged the CCRC's ongoing review of her convictions is 'important' given 'the calibre of some of the people who've raised concerns.'
Why it matters: The 822-page inquiry places blame not just on individual clinicians but on a hospital management culture that dismissed warnings and delayed police involvement by roughly a year. With the Health Secretary committing to CCTV on neonatal wards and the CCRC re-examining Letby's convictions, the fallout is simultaneously reshaping baby ward security protocols and reopening public scrutiny of how the original investigation was handled.
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