IMO I think the Sir Humphreys' have done a very good job in using Letby to avoid anyone looking any deeper.
Who knows how many female SK nurses there are in the NHS system?
Indeed who knows, probably very few. There will be many more who cause harm unintentionally and whilst attempting to provide the best care possible, and many of those incidents can probably be attributed to being overworked and spread too thinly.
JMO- but this is where the case needs talking about- there are a whole heap of people who believe she is guilty and that everything was transparent in court and reporting was accurate and this evidenced her guilt.
There are a small group of people who believe she is absolutely innocent- I don’t believe they are conspiracy theorists as one member of the jury agreed with them on the majority of charges, so there is some basis for doubt no matter how small.
Then there are the people who are growing in number who sit in the middle and want everything to be looked at again.
This third point is important for the reason you mentioned, although I’m not sure how tongue in cheek it was, I personally don’t feel anything will improve or prevent this happening again. We have the inquiry and I don’t envy Lady Thirlwall- what recommendations will she suggest? I think it will be reinforcing what should have been done at the time- which is following protocol for suspicious or unexplained deaths, making sure notes are accurate and ensuring DATIX and SUDIc forms are completed and requesting post mortems. All things that at points could have, but weren’t done at COCH. CCTV is a bit of a wildcard as it’s unlikely to always be at the right angle, close enough, probably won’t have sound and can’t track around to provide enough evidence.
I do think addressing a massive pattern with little solid evidence has caused problems in this case- and it surprises me that people believe they would have acted in the same cautious manner and then turned it up a notch without much basis. The trigger to turn it up a gear and investigate doesn’t appear to have come from the doctors, but the senior managers, who go to the police and are told they need more evidence. It was only then the doctors talked to the police and made their case that triggered everything. It’s probably hindsight, but why would you not have zoned in and supervised, been more present and annotated notes more in the previous months to find evidence of your suspicion of guilt? This to me is the part I may never understand, but until it’s analysed the chances of this happening again are high.
