UK - Lucy Letby - Post-Conviction Statutory Inquiry

[Sweeper2000]

FORTY PERCENT INCREASE in tube dislodgement at Liverpool whilst she was on shift ?
She was practicing there.
This is unbelievable.

Where did u get that?

 

[CS2C]

FORTY PERCENT INCREASE in tube dislodgement at Liverpool whilst she was on shift ?
She was practicing there.
This is unbelievable.

I wonder what the statisticians will say about that....

 

[CS2C]

From the Independent

Barrister brings up incidents connected to Letby at a second hospital​

Mr Baker sets out how unexpected collapses of children would usually be a rare occasion, but these incidents increased during Letby’s shifts.
Letby had training placements at Liverpool Women’s Hospital between October to December 2012 and January to February 2015.
“Given the prevalence of dislodgement of endotracheal tubes, in this case, my lady may perceive it as a common event, but the evidence suggests that it isn’t at all common. It is very uncommon, you will hear evidence that it generally occurs in less than 1 per cent of shifts,” he said.
“As a side note, you will hear that an audit carried out by Liverpool Women’s Hospital, whilst Letby was working there, dislodgement of endotracheal tubes occurred in 40 per cent of shifts that she worked.”

 

[Sweeper2000]

Ohhhh dear, she was then a cat playing with mice and yes it escalated over time and yes likely doing it from the start. Oh dear oh dear oh dear, so many correct guesses, donkeys ago. No way those tubes dislodged themselves and it also bolsters baby K case. Oh dearrrrr, this should really remove any doubt at all. That's a 40% increase in tube dislodgement only in the times she was working and guess what that bolsters the rota argument in the first trial. She's getting long term dues.


@Marantz4250b here's your beef sir.

 

[CS2C]

Ohhhh dear, she was then a cat playing with mice and yes it escalated over time and yes likely doing it from the start. Oh dear oh dear oh dear, so many correct guesses, donkeys ago. No way those tubes dislodged themselves and it also bolsters baby K case. Oh dearrrrr, this should really remove any doubt at all. That's a 40% increase in tube dislodgement only in the times she was working and guess what that bolsters the rota argument in the first trial. She's getting long term dues.


@Marantz4250b here's your beef sir.

Sadly not, some loons are already saying "How dare they bring this up when Lucy isn't there to defend herself"

 

[CS2C]

I wonder if they will release video sections of today's proceedings after the event?
I assume the reason there is no live stream today is due to the concern of names being accidentally released etc

 

[Parker Knoll]

I don’t think we will get much today by way of live proceedings. There is going to be so much blanking of names it would be a nightmare to cover.

 

[katydid23]

'Denial, deflection and delay'
​

Judith Moritz
Reporting from the inquiry

Skelton says "major failures" that were happening in 2015 continued in 2016, "but by then they were magnified by denial, deflection and delay on the part of the hospital executives”.

“There was also an inexplicable failure to provide information to external bodies including the regulator, the Care Quality Commission (CQC)," he adds.

Human shortcomings and systemic weaknesses were to blame for issues at the hospital, he says.

While consultants acted with "tenacity and courage" in efforts to raise concerns with senior management, he says "it should also be recognised that the consultants were in a position to trigger whistleblowing procedures but did not do so".

Consultants should never have found themselves in that position, he says.

 

[katydid23]

Hospital bosses failed to learn lessons of Allitt and Chua, lawyer says

10:43 BST​

Judith Moritz
Reporting from the inquiry

Skelton names ward manager Eirian Powell, director of nursing Alison Kelly, and medical director Ian Harvey as the bosses who failed to learn the lessons of the Allitt and Chua cases.

Skelton says Harvey repeated the mantra that he was not presented with sufficient information by the consultants, which Skelton says is "misconceived".

"It wasn’t for Ian Harvey to judge the validity of the consultants' concerns - he wasn't a neonatologist or a police officer," Skelton says.

 

[MollyHarps]

the families lawyer says people should be ashamed of themselves for questioning Letbys conviction

Lucy Letby hospital inquiry: Anyone questioning Lucy Letby’s guilt ‘should be ashamed’, lawyer tells inquiry

The inquiry hears the medical director had to intervene over the nickname given to Letby at the Countess of Chester Hospital.

www.bbc.co.uk

I have to say the first few days of this inquiry has done wonders to quash the conspiracies.

It’s a good job that this whistleblowing doctor was so persistent with his accusations of Letby to Senior Management - just imagine what could have happened if she got a job at Alder Hey.

Alder Hey deals with extremely sick children - they likely have several deaths a day so her actions could have gone unnoticed for a long period of time.

 

[katydid23]

'Cultural norms' undermined suspicion of Letby

10:47 BST​

Judith Moritz
Reporting from the inquiry

Skelton now lays out what he describes as the “cultural norms” which undermined suspicion of Letby.

He says among the factors at play were
“professional reticence…institutional secrecy...the demonisation of whistleblowers…the growing schisms between the nurses and doctors, and doctors and executives”.

Skelton KC tells Lady Justice Thirlwall that she will be up against “longstanding cultural forces” when seeking to make recommendations for change.

“I would urge that the hospital’s chief executives show a greater degree of reflection - their denials and deflections continue to cause pain," he adds.

 

[katydid23]

​

Anyone doubting Letby's conviction should be 'ashamed', lawyer says

11:01 BST​

Judith Moritz
Reporting from the inquiry

Skelton now addresses the widely-published doubts surrounding Lucy Letby's conviction.

For context: Some statisticians have publicly questioned the credibility of some of the evidence against Letby - such as a staffing rota showing she had been on duty for every suspicious death or collapse between June 2015 and June 2016.

Skelton says that critics of the case against Letby don’t understand that her conviction was not through statistical argument.

He highlights the fact the Court of Appeal refused her permission to appeal her case and that she was convicted because the "factual and expert medical evidence demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that she had harmed the children at the hospital".

Richard Baker KC, who is also representing some of the families, adds that anybody doubting the case "should be ashamed of themselves".

Quote Message
The families are in no doubt that Letby is guilty. The jury were in no doubt that she is guilty. This is being arrogantly ignored. [...] As a society we are too quick to make judgements made on first impressions.
Richard Baker KC

Quote Message
We prefer our monsters to look like monsters. It’s sometimes hard to accept that evil can be banal [...] but we should not be so naive. To be successful a serial killer hides in plain sight.
Richard Baker KC

 

[katydid23]

'Remarkable similarity' between Letby and Allitt cases

11:11 BST​

Judith Moritz
Reporting from the inquiry

The court is now hearing from Richard Baker KC, who is representing the families of children C, D, E, F, G, H, J, K, O, P, R - and also Child U who didn’t feature in the criminal trial.

Baker refers back to the case of Beverley Allitt, who was working at Grantham hospital in Lincolnshire when she killed four children and tried to murder another nine in 1991.

The case will remain a "constant presence" throughout the inquiry as it bears a "remarkable similarity" to Letby, he says.

"The Grantham and Kesteven Hospital did considerably better [in the Allitt case] than the Countess of Chester Hospital did years later," Baker says.

 

[katydid23]

Babies weren't all vulnerable, lawyer says
​

Judith Moritz
Reporting from the inquiry

Moving on to the circumstances of some of the children's deaths, Baker says: "Despite what has been said in the media, the babies weren’t all vulnerable.

"Some were ready to go home - they were stable, improving. Nobody could understand why they were suddenly collapsing and dying.

“The families ask: 'Why was there not greater curiosity? Why was it in some cases that families were told not to have post mortems? Was it part of the secrecy?'"

The parents of the children who died in 2016 view their deaths as a "safeguarding failing" because they happened at a time when there were known concerns that harm was being deliberately done, the lawyer adds.

He says that parents also believe that attempts to blow the whistle and escalate concerns were "supressed by management at a cost of further harm to victims”.

"They believe that seven babies were murdered or harmed in the period following October 2015 because proper steps were not taken to explore those concerns and that each successive delay allowed more harm to be caused."

 

[Sweeper2000]

Sadly not, some loons are already saying "How dare they bring this up when Lucy isn't there to defend herself

We know what she would say "was there something wrong with my practice?" And our response would be "secondary to there being something very very wrong with you Lucy, yes".

Interesting, I may have found a certain weakness in clinical safety guidelines. They only figured out about the tubes after this trial ? Probably that means they are not checking the rates or logging them.

 

[katydid23]

Families informed 'in hurried and unexpected way
11:23 BST​

Judith Moritz
Reporting from the inquiry

Baker says families were informed of the circumstances surrounding the deaths of their children in a "hurried and unexpected way, often not through proper channels but though leaks to the media and newspapers, and some even during the course of Lucy Letby’s criminal trial".

"The families continued to discover new information throughout the trial and they will continue to do so throughout this inquiry," he adds.

Families not provided with adequate bereavement support, lawyer says
​

Judith Moritz
Reporting from the inquiry

Baker is now discussing the communication between the children's families and authorities.
He says some of the families were unaware of the number of times their baby had collapsed, adding that “providing accurate information to parents is a bedrock of compassionate healthcare”.

"Those who lost babies weren’t provided with adequate bereavement support."

 

[katydid23]

Some parents only told about care concerns after Letby's arrest
​

Judith Moritz
Reporting from the inquiry

Baker says the parents of children C, G and H were only told that there had been any issues with their children’s care when they were phoned by police on the morning of Letby’s arrest on 3 July 2018.

That "lack of transparency" extended to the coroner, he adds.

Families believe hospital was 'dishonest', their lawyer says
​

Judith Moritz
Reporting from the inquiry

Baker draws the inquiry's attention to the full report by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, which he says wasn’t provided to families.
The decision to redact the report, removing references to Letby, was a "blatant lack of candour", he says.

“The families believe the management of the hospital were dishonest and covered up what happened, possibly to protect reputations," Baker says.

Hospital management accused of 'whitewash'​

Judith Moritz
Reporting from the inquiry

Baker moves on to talk about a meeting in February 2017 between the mother of Child C and the then medical director Ian Harvey.

Baker says Harvey told her there was nothing more that could have been done [to prevent the child's death].

"If the inquiry accepts the mother’s evidence, Ian Harvey lied to her," he says.

He adds that Harvey knew parents had only been provided with the redacted Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health report and he "was aware at that time of concerns of Lucy Letby being involved in harming children."

The families he is representing accuse the hospital management of a "whitewash", he says.

 

[katydid23]

Letby's work placements being investigated​

Judith Moritz
Reporting from the inquiry

The inquiry this morning has also referenced Letby's time at Liverpool Women's Hospital, where she had two work placements in 2012 and 2015.

Richard Baker KC says an audit was carried out into Letby's time at the hospital.

He says it showed that the dislodgement of endotracheal (breathing) tubes occurred on 40% of shifts that Letby was working - despite dislodgement generally happening on fewer than 1% of all shifts.

Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust has previously confirmed, externalCheshire Police is investigating Letby's time at the hospital.

 

[katydid23]

Hospital apologises for communication failings​

Judith Moritz
Reporting from the inquiry

The inquiry is now hearing from Andrew Kennedy KC, who represents the Countess of Chester Hospital Foundation Trust.

He says the parents' statements "bring home the horror of these events" and the trust has "the utmost sympathy for the suffering of the parents of the babies".

"Losing a child is the greatest sorrow any parent can experience," he says.

"Those who have not experienced that loss will never truly understand the magnitude....

"The trust is committed to being open, honest and transparent to this inquiry. It will not shirk its responsibility."

Kennedy says the trust "apologises without reservation" for its "inexcusable" failures in communication with parents.

 

[katydid23]

Key date highlighted for 'opportunity to act'​

Judith Moritz
Reporting from the inquiry

Kennedy is now laying out a timeline of how suspicions about Letby developed.

He highlights March 2016 as an "important date", after which "there was an opportunity to act".

It was at this point that senior executives at the hospital had received the results of the 'thematic review' - which had "clearly identified" a higher-than-expected mortality rate on the neonatal unit in 2015.

"We suggest that up to that point the reasonable focus was finding a clinical explanation for the events," he adds.

"In so far as a cause relating to a member of staff... it’s far more likely to relate to a competency issue than something criminal.

"There has been talk of being prepared to think the unthinkable…that is something which is more applicable later in the chronology than earlier."