by Nurses have written an open letter to Sir Keir Starmer warning them that the Lucy Letby case has left them “scared” to continue working in the NHS for fear of being wrongly blamed for deaths in their care.
The group of 19 nurses came together to claim that Letby’s recent convictions had “implications” for the nursing profession.
They have asked the Government to establish a Royal commission to carry out a forensic examination of the evidence presented in the case.
In August last year, Letby was convicted of the murders of seven newborn babies and the attempted murders of six more babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital. A retrial in July found her guilty of the attempted murder of another child.
But some scientists and doctors have since questioned the evidence, and there are concerns that insufficient weight was given in the trial to levels of understaffing, poor practice and confined conditions in the children’s unit.
‘Blame a failing system’
The registered and retired nurses group, as well as other healthcare and medical professionals, have written to the Prime Minister “to express our growing concern” about the “evidence presented and used to convict Ms Letby”.
The letter continues: “We are all concerned that this conviction is unsafe and as a result we and many of our colleagues are afraid to continue working in the NHS as we believe it could be one of us next time who blamed one of us. system failing.
“We believe that flawed and unreliable scientific evidence was used to convict Ms Letby, and this has a major impact on the nursing profession.”
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The nurses said they had a “duty of candor” to speak out about their concerns and called for a forensic review or Royal commission and cross-party working group to be set up to look into the case.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) says that nurses, midwives and nursing partners have an honest professional duty to be open and honest with patients and their families when something goes wrong in their care.
The nurses raised nine areas of concern about the case, including that a Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health report from 2016 – outlining failings in the neonatal unit – was not shown to the jury.
The report showed that staff were understaffed and the unit was dealing with more premature babies than usual during the period in 2015 and 2016 when death rates rose.
“Clear evidence of sub-optimal care on the unit needs to be acknowledged and investigated as many believe it may be an important factor in many of the deaths and falls,” the nurses wrote.
“During the trial, experts repeatedly misrepresented the children’s health status, repeatedly describing them as ‘good’ and ‘stable’ when many were premature and fragile.
“Most of the children required respiratory support and ventilation and other medical interventions, and some were being treated for infections.
“We call for a scientifically rigorous Royal commission/independent review where real experts, such as forensic pathologists, medical specialists, and scientists can conduct a detailed and meticulous forensic assessment to re-examine the evidence in this troubling case.
“We believe this is vital for nurses, and healthcare practitioners alike, so that we can be confident and safe in our work.”
‘Nurses resigning from children’s units’
In a recent Channel 5 documentary re-examining the Letby case, Dr Svilena Dimitrova, a consultant neonatologist, warned that nurses are leaving Britain’s children’s units because they fear being accused of harming infants.
Dr Dimitrova, who works as a medical reviewer for Ockenden’s independent review of maternity services at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, said NHS problems were “endemic” and nurses feared they could be scapegoated for failing wards.
Speaking about Letby’s conviction on the programme, Dr Dimitrova, who is not involved in the letter, said: “It is certainly a cause for great fear, particularly among the neonatal nursing body. I’ve never seen so many nurses resign as I’ve seen in the last 18 months.”
The nurses who signed the letter come from across Britain, but have chosen to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals from their trusts. They showed the Telegraph their NMC registration numbers to verify their positions.
‘Hypotheses were unbelievable’
Last month, The Telegraph reported how NHS trusts warned nurses not to speak about the case or give evidence on Letby’s behalf.
The nurse acting as spokesperson for the group said: “The group was set up so that we could discuss the situation safely, and we looked at each situation individually, keeping a very open mind.
“And after each case it became clear that we were talking about babies born who were barely viable for life, with pre-existing congenital medical conditions as well as a lot of sub-optimal care.
“The hypotheses put forward by the prosecution were simply unbelievable and the way sub-optimal care was played in court is appalling and must be addressed.”
She added: “People are scared because they can see how easily this can happen.
“At one point in my career I was a nurse specialist and I was working 80 hours a week and living in a nursing home and I would be interrupted all the time. If there was a cluster of deaths the finger would be pointed at me. And clusters happen.”
The letter will be made available on the Science on Trial website for nurses to add their names to.
