Langdale is also saying the inquiry will be investigating why the first mention of involving the police in the case was in July 2016, but no action was taken to do so until a year later.
Lucy Letby and the whistleblowing procedures in place in Countess of Chester hospital.
In particular she asks whether undue pressure was applied to consultants who had raised issues about Letby, including the suggestion complaints might in turn be made about them to the GMC. Langdale also asked whether the person running the process – a nurse from a neighbouring trust – was truly independent and empowered to carry out an independent investigation.
She also questioned why so little legal advice was taken during the process, and why the advice that was taken appears to have been commissioned by the HR department on an ad hoc basis rather than by the legal department.
Langdale ended by asking the inquiry whether the evidence in fact reveals what she called an “abject failure” by those investigating the case to engage with the most basic safeguarding requirements and the need to keep babies in the care of the hospital safe.
Lucy Letby received professional help in setting out her grievance against being taken away from duties on the neonatal ward, and that she felt she had been told she could not socialise normally with colleagues.
Langdale says later oral testimony at the inquiry will explore this process, and how it came to be that when there was a meeting over the case Letby appears to have been left unaware that there were external reviews being carried out.
NHS. She says the inquiry will investigate whether the Countess of Chester hospital was implementing its stated whistleblowing policy.Lucy Letby having more access to babies after she was removed from duty. Langdale reminded the inquiry that it was originally the plan that Letby should be “supervised” on the ward, but due to staffing issues this did not happen. Langdale said it was only the vociferous lobbying of the consultant paediatricians that continued to advocate for being kept out of the direct care of children.Lucy Letby was not being allowed to work directly with patients during this period.
She appears to have suggested that any concerns about Letby were based on “gut feeling” from the senior paediatricians and not evidence, and that “this allegation against Letby is massive and if anyone is of this belief then why have the police not been called?”
One issue for the inquiry to examine is that it appeared a decision had been made to return Letby to duties in the neonatal unit in January 2017 before the external investigations into the unit were completed.
Lucy Letby.
The trust’s chief executive, Tony Chambers, has said in his evidence, the inquiry heard, that he does not recall being “emphatic” about it, but it also appears that he said Letby had been “exonerated” when her grievance was partially upheld.
Langdale stressed to the inquiry that the grievance process had not involved any investigation of Letby’s actions.
Lucy Letby raised a grievance against her treatment. It was partially upheld and as a result consultants who had raised questions about her were told they needed to apologise to her.
“The abuse of a greivance process to evade scrutiny is,” Rachel Langdale KC says, “something that an organisation must be able to recognise”. She said the inquiry has seen evidence that suggests the grievance began to dominate the thinking of management.
The inquiry is breaking for 15 minutes and will start again at 3pm BST.
Lucy Letby and whether she should be allowed direct contact with patients as a HR issue, attempting to manage her return to work in the neonatal unit in a “supportive” environment, rather than escalating the suspicion around her to the police.
Source: theguardian.com
