Nurses are “terrified” of continuing to work in the NHS in case they are blamed for future patient deaths, a group of medical workers said in an open letter to the Prime Minister.
A group of 19 nurses are behind a letter to Sir Keir Starmer urging him to open a “full forensic review” of the evidence used to convict Lucy Letby of the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of seven others.
Letby was found guilty of murder and six attempted murder charges at the Countess of Chester Hospital last summer, and convicted of another attempted murder last month following a retrial.
However, questions have been raised about the reliability of the evidence prosecutors relied on to convict the former neonatal nurse, amid concerns that wider issues with staffing, capacity and practices in the ward were downplayed during the trial.
Some of the retired registered nurses and medical and health professionals behind the letter say they attended Letby’s trials and do not trust the safety of the evidence.
Lucy Letby is serving a life sentence for the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of seven others.
Letby wrote a series of notes, including one that reads “I did this,” which were recovered by police during searches of his home.
Letby has never confessed to his crimes and experts have expressed doubts about the safety of the convictions.
Letby, who worked at the Countess of Cheshire Hospital, gave evidence in court
An anonymous group of nurses have written to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer calling for an independent review of the evidence used to convict the killer nurse.
As a result, they say, NHS workers are nervous about becoming the “next” Letby and being, in their view, unfairly convicted for a death they had no role in.
Letby is now serving a life sentence, meaning he will die in prison.
“We are all concerned that this conviction is dangerous and as a result we and many of our colleagues are now terrified to continue working in the NHS because we believe that next time it could be one of us who is blamed for a failed system,” the letter reads.
They list nine areas of concern, including a report prepared by the hospital trust after a rise in baby deaths which reported staff shortages and a lack of expert consultants on the ward.
The letter also claims that a staff chart used to secure convictions against Letby by suggesting she was on duty during most of the deaths was “misleading” and that the health of babies who died under the nurse’s supervision was “misrepresented.”
“We respectfully request a scientifically rigorous independent review/Royal Commission where genuine experts… can conduct a detailed and meticulous forensic assessment to re-examine the evidence in this troubling case,” the letter reads.
We believe this is crucial for both nurses and healthcare professionals, so that we can feel safe and confident in our work.
“We also encourage the formation of a dedicated, cross-party task force to investigate the procedural irregularities that have been exposed by the media. We are united as a country in our belief in a fair and open justice system.
“Ms Letby’s trial has shaken our collective faith and we urge you to act now to restore public trust in the justice system. For now, many nurses and healthcare professionals do not have that trust.”
Body camera footage issued by Cheshire Police shows Letby’s arrest in July 2018
The neonatal ward at the Countess of Chester Hospital where Letby worked
A spokesperson for the anonymous group, who says he cannot be identified for fear of retaliation from his employers, told The telegraph‘After each case, it became clear that we were talking about babies who were born barely viable for life, with pre-existing congenital medical conditions, as well as a lot of suboptimal care.’
Nurses say they are resigning in large numbers following the conclusion of Letby’s trial for fear of being accused of killing patients.
Letby denied killing and attempting to kill babies at trial and attempted to appeal his convictions after they were handed down, a hearing that was denied.
Evidence presented during the trial revealed she wrote notes that read: “I am evil,” “I did this,” and “I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough.”
But Dr. Mike Hall, a neonatologist who provided expert opinion for Letby’s defense during the trial, previously said he does not believe the prosecution has proven the nurse was guilty “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
He said The Guardian In July: “I don’t think he got a fair trial because no medical experts were called for the defence to challenge the prosecution’s expert medical evidence.”
And he later told The Times: ‘I would have given different answers to those given by the prosecution’s expert medical witnesses, and different interpretations for some of the cases.
“That’s not to say I know all the answers or that I know Lucy Letby is innocent. There were certainly some facts that were difficult to explain.”
The Crown Prosecution Service admitted last week that data on swipe cards showing when staff entered and left the neonatal unit where Letby worked was incorrect.
Prosecutors said during the nurse’s retrial that the data had been “mislabeled” and that an earlier claim that Letby had been alone in the ward on a particular date was in fact inaccurate.
In both trials, slippage data were used to show that Letby was the only nurse on the unit at a time when the babies’ conditions deteriorated.
A spokesman for the Mersey-Cheshire Crown Prosecution Service said: “The prosecution can confirm that accurate details of the door-breaking were presented at the retrial.”
The open letter is published on the Science On Trial website.
