Hospital bosses spent 11 months trying to reinstate Lucy Letby despite fears ... trends now
Hospital bosses spent 11 months trying to reinstate Lucy Letby to the neonatal unit despite doctors' fears that she was killing babies, a court has heard.
Nurse Letby, 33, is on trial at Manchester Crown Court, accused of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder 10 others at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit over the course of a year from June 2015 to June 2016.
She was taken off 'frontline' duties in June 2016 after hospital consultants raised concerns about the high mortality rates in the hospital as they were 'not medically explicable'.
The battle over Letby's possible return to the neonatal unit continued for 11 months as the neonatal nurse pursued a grievance procedure.
At one point consultants said they would only agree to her return if the hospital installed CCTV throughout the unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
Dr John Gibbs told the jury at Manchester Crown Court that his colleague, Stephen Brearey, the lead paediatrician, had reported his concerns about Letby on a number of occasions.
The 'tipping point' on the issue came in the immediate aftermath of the death of two triplets – Baby O and Baby P - within 24 hours of each other. Both were deaths 'that shouldn't have happened'.
Hospital bosses spent 11 months trying to reinstate Lucy Letby (pictured) to the neonatal unit despite doctors' fears that she was killing babies, Manchester Crown Court has heard
Nurse Letby, 33, is on trial at Manchester Crown Court (illustrated), accused of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder 10 others at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit over the course of a year from June 2015 to June 2016
Dr Gibbs, who has since retired, said he remembered feeling 'uncomfortable' when he came into the unit on June 23, 2016, to find Baby O dying after an unexplained collapse.
'I thought "Oh no, not another one",' Dr Gibbs explained.
'I'd become increasingly concerned about the unusual, unexplained and inexplicable collapses that had been happening on the neonatal unit and the fact that Staff Nurse Letby had been involved in all of them.'
He told Ben Myers KC, defending, the collapses were unique events 'that I'd never seen before in my career'.
Dr Gibbs continued: 'Medicine could never be an exact science and there were occasions when doctors were unable to find an explanation for a patient's demise.
'But this was happening again and again on our unit and that can't just be coincidence or bad luck. There had to be a cause.
'The concern I've described was becoming apparent. It was unusual that unexpected incidents kept on happening. It was a trend that had built up over time.'
It was one of the duties of Stephen Brearey, the lead clinician on the unit, to carry out reviews into baby deaths and adverse outcomes.
He knew that his colleague had raised the issue of Letby's presence 'several times', and that his concerns had gone to the hospital's risk management team to be assessed.
They had also been raised with the director of nursing and the medical director at The Countess.
Dr Gibbs said: 'After the deaths of (Baby) P and (Baby) O, and regrettably, tragically, too late for them, safety measures were introduced.
'One
