Ex-boss of hospital where Lucy Letby murdered babies suing NHS trust

Ex-boss of hospital where Lucy Letby murdered babies is suing NHS trust which she claims ‘forced her out’ after she criticised failures which ‘likely led to deaths of newborns’

• Watch the Mail’s documentary The Trial of Lucy Letby here 

The former hospital boss who raised concerns about serial killer Lucy Letby is suing the NHS trust for ‘forcing her out’ as she accuses managers of ‘treating victims’ families in an appalling way’.

Dr Susan Gilby took over as the Countess of Chester Hospital’s medical director a month after the killer was arrested in 2018 and commissioned an independent review to examine management’s response to the baby deaths in Letby’s unit.

She ‘rapidly came to the conclusion’ that failures to deal with complaints about Letby ‘more likely than not’ led to the deaths of babies.

Dr Gilby is now taking the trust to an employment tribunal, alleging that chairman Ian Haythornthwaite ‘bullied, harassed and undermined’ her after she launched the prove into the neonatal unit where Letby worked, The Telegraph reported.

Letby, 33, was sentenced to a whole-life term on Monday for the murder of seven babies and the attempted murders of six more.

Dr Susan Gilby (pictured) is allegedly suing the NHS trust for ‘forcing her out’ as she accuses managers of ‘treating victims’ families in an appalling way’

Dr Gilby ‘rapidly came to the conclusion’ that failures to deal with complaints about Letby ‘more likely than not’ led to the deaths of babies. Lucy Letby is pictured while working at the Countess of Chester Hospital

Lucy Letby, 33, (pictured in custody) was sentenced to a whole-life term on Monday for the murder of seven babies and the attempted murders of six more

Dr Gilby and then-trust chairman Sir Duncun Nichol commissioned the review after she took over the hospital in 2018. But three years later, the document remains unpublished.

‘The evidence we’d seen and the discussions I have with paediatricians led us to be concerned that there were lessons to be learned,’ she told The Telegraph. 

READ MORE: We trusted Lucy Letby so much we wanted her to be our baby’s godmother. Now we think she tried to kill him 

The anaesthetist and intensive care doctor claims that the evidence she found during the probe made her ‘fear’ that some of the baby deaths ‘could have been avoided’ if management had ‘responded differently’.

Senior doctors at the hospital, where the nurse carried out her year-long killing spree on the neonatal unit, raised concerns for months before she was finally taken off frontline duties. 

Dr Gilby told Sky News yesterday that there was ‘certainly a possibility’ that management failures to deal with complaints led to lives being needlessly lost.

She added: ‘But it needs to be an external and objective review, looking at all the evidence, and giving people the right of reply to that evidence, that will come to that conclusion, and not for individuals such as myself.

‘From a personal point of view, and obviously speaking more as a mother than a doctor or a senior leader in the NHS, it’s my greatest fear and I think it’s more likely than not that that will turn out to be the case. 

‘I sincerely hope that it isn’t.’

Dr Gilby claims that the evidence she found during the probe made her ‘fear’ that some of the baby deaths ‘could have been avoided’ if management had ‘responded differently’. Pictured: A corridor within the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit where Letby worked

Dr Gilby claimed that there was ‘certainly a possibility’ that management failures to deal with complaints led to lives being needlessly lost. Pictured: A cot where a baby referred to as Child G in the Lucy Letby court case, was being treated when she projectile vomited

Senior doctors at the hospital, where Lucy Letby (pictured holding an infant) carried out her year-long killing spree on the neonatal unit, raised concerns for months before she was finally taken off frontline duties

The trust suspended Dr Gilby last December and she has since resigned from her position. 

She declined to discuss her legal case with the newspaper but it is understood that she is suing for ‘constructive dismissal’.

READ MORE: Lucy Letby remains on the nursing register and it could be weeks or even months before she is struck off

Her employment tribunal is due to begin on Christmas Eve and the hospital is defending the claim. 

Mr Haythornthwaite told The Telegraph: ‘The trust and I dispute everything she says in her legal claim.’

The Countess of Chester Hospital saw a significant rise in the number of babies suffering serious and unexpected collapses in 2015 and 2016.

Letby’s presence when collapses took place was first mentioned to senior management by the unit’s head consultant in late June 2015.

Concerns among some consultants about Letby increased and were voiced to hospital bosses when more unexplained and unusual collapses followed, her trial at Manchester Crown Court heard.

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.

She was confined to clerical work but registered a grievance procedure, which was resolved in her favour, and was due to return to the unit in March 2017.

The move did not take place as soon after police were contacted by the hospital trust.

Dr Gilby’s employment tribunal is due to begin on Christmas Eve and the hospital (pictured) is defending the claim. Mr Haythornthwaite (not pictured) said: ‘The trust and I dispute everything she says in her legal claim’

Parents of babies have claimed they received a ‘total fob off’ from hospital medical director Ian Harvey after raising concerns, a lawyer representing them said.

Dr Gilby told the Guardian: ‘There may be correspondence with the families that I’ve not been party to, but what I have seen was appalling.’

In a statement to the same newspaper, Mr Harvey said: ‘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 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.’

Source: Read Full Article