A senior doctor who voiced concerns about Lucy Letby to hospital managers has described the final inquiry report into the events at the Countess of Chester Hospital's neonatal unit as making for "grim reading." Dr. John Gibbs, a consultant pediatrician who worked at the hospital between 2015 and 2016, the period when Letby murdered seven infants and attempted to murder seven others, told the BBC that consultants must accept "collective" responsibility for some of the report's identified failings.
"I wish we consultants had been brave enough to follow our suspicions and escalate things to the police earlier," Gibbs stated. He added that if other consultant colleagues did not report their suspicions, he should have taken that step himself. The Thirlwall Inquiry, launched after Letby's 2023 conviction, published its final 822-page report on Tuesday. Lady Justice Thirlwall's report detailed "a complete failure to protect babies" on the unit and found that police notification was delayed, with hospital managers repeatedly dismissing consultants' concerns.
Gibbs acknowledged that the report was not an easy read, particularly for the parents of the affected babies, and expressed that he felt the hospital staff had failed the infants. He apologized to the families for this perceived failure. The retired pediatrician agreed with the report's conclusion that hospital executives missed opportunities to act and potentially save lives while the deaths were occurring. He also recalled a difficult and tense atmosphere when dealing with managers in the 11 months after Letby was moved off the unit, prior to the police investigation.
"Managers were determined to ensure that we accepted Lucy Letby had been wrongly suspected of doing any harm," Gibbs explained. He also referenced a specific instance where a colleague overlooked blood test results suggesting an infant had been poisoned with insulin in August 2015. Gibbs characterized this as a collective team failure, noting that other on-call doctors covering the unit had the opportunity to review the baby's notes.
Letby is currently serving 15 life sentences for the murders and has been denied permission to appeal her convictions twice. The Criminal Cases Review Commission is independently reviewing her convictions. Gibbs mentioned that the ongoing support for Letby and claims of her wrongful conviction have been frustrating and difficult for him and other consultants. He finds misinformation circulating online particularly challenging but reiterated his belief in Letby's guilt. However, he emphasized the importance of the CCRC examining the evidence used to convict Letby, given the "calibre of some of the people who've raised concerns."