Probe faults hospital for failing to stop baby-murdering U.K. nurse

The British government released inquiry findings on Tuesday on how an English nurse was able to kill seven infants under her care across several years. An English jury convicted Lucy Letby in 2023 of killing seven infants and attempting to kill six others while working in the neonatal ward at the Countess of Chester Hospital in northwest England from 2015 to 2016. The report faulted the hospital for dysfunctional management and failing to intervene as it became apparent that babies were being deliberately harmed.

Letby, now serving a lifelong prison sentence, intentionally harmed and killed infants in several ways that left little to no evidence, including injecting air into infants’ bloodstreams or using insulin to poison them. Officials launched a public accountability probe into how Letby caused such harm right under the noses of hospital staff and management. The new report, issued by Justice Kathryn Thirlwall, came just over a year after police arrested three hospital leaders under investigation for possible gross negligence manslaughter for the babies’ deaths.

What did the judge’s report find? Thirlwall, in October 2023, started an inquiry that included evidence from 134 witnesses. The judge identified errors from nurses, doctors, and hospital management, and reported a total failure to establish safeguarding practices. Thirlwall’s report delivered a chronological account and timeline of the babies’ deaths and the failure of hospital staff to act after it became clear that some outside force was causing an increase in infant deaths.

Thirlwall specifically noted how no doctors or nurses were shocked by the deaths of three infants in June 2015, and attributed them to natural causes. Hospital leaders conducting the mortality review noted that Letby had been on duty for all three deaths, yet thought nothing of it, Thirlwall wrote. The judge concluded that some of Letby’s victims would still be alive had the hospital leaders identified the pattern and acted sooner.