Lucy Letby: ‘Defensive tradition’ in NHS meant considerations about killer nurse weren’t acted upon, says ombudsman

NHS sufferers’ lives will proceed to be “at risk” until whistleblowing legal guidelines are modified within the wake of missed possibilities to catch killer nurse Lucy Letby, the well being service ombudsman has instructed Sky News.

Executives on the Countess of Chester Hospital, the place Letby labored, didn’t act on repeated considerations raised about her by medical doctors who linked the neonatal nurse to a rising variety of unexplained deaths.

The authorities has introduced an inquiry into how Letby was capable of murder seven babies and attempt to kill six others.

Speaking within the wake of the case, Ombudsman Rob Behrens warned: “We know that routinely 11,000 people die avoidably each year in the NHS.

“We know that the NHS spends tens of millions of kilos in litigation in circumstances involving perinatal dying and different types of mortality within the NHS.

“And so, it’s going to continue to happen unless everyone gets together under the leadership of ministers to address these issues. And there are no quick fixes.

“There must be modifications to the legislation to allow whistleblowers to not be fobbed off and threatened in the way in which that occurred on this case.”

Mr Behrens stated considerations raised about Letby weren’t acted on due to a “defensive culture” within the NHS which places “the reputation of the trust above patient safety”.

He stated: “We’ve seen it too many times. In too many places, where clinicians are stigmatised because they want to raise patient safety issues.

“And as an alternative of being listened to again and again, what occurs is that they’re bullied, threatened, after which in the end reported to the regulatory physique the GMC in a disciplinary method.”

He added: “There is a tradition which places the popularity of belief within the NHS above the difficulty of affected person security.

“And turning that round is immensely difficult, but it is there and we have to learn from disclosures, by clinicians, by managers, by independent reports, principally by users of the service, by patients.

“And what’s of nice concern to me, in addition to the adversarial tradition which exists, is that we all know that too many instances, households and sufferers aren’t listened to. And there is a lack of empathy and compassion”.

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Mr Behrens has written to the well being secretary so as to add his voice to these, together with bereaved households, calling for the inquiry into the Letby case to be a statutory inquiry. the place witnesses could be compelled to present proof.

He has but to obtain a reply and isn’t assured of receiving a response from Steve Barclay.

Mr Behrens isn’t satisfied a report into the failings on the Countess of Chester Hospital will stop a repeat of yet one more maternity scandal sooner or later, until swift motion is taken to implement systemic change.

Since 2015, three main inquiries have uncovered the catastrophic failures that led to infants being harmed or dying on the Morecambe Bay, Shrewsbury and Telford and East Kent NHS hospital trusts.

A fourth inquiry into the Nottingham hospital belief is now beneath method.

“I think that just commissioning reports and hoping they will be implemented is not the answer,” he stated.

“I think Bill Kirkup has made that clear from his report into East Kent, where he’s basically saying things that happened 15 years ago which he reported on in Morecambe Bay and nothing has changed.

“So that is concerning the management of the NHS, ministers, boards, managers, NHS England, not sufficiently addressing the tradition and what’s essential to take care of that transformation.

“I’m not interested in blame. You know, the courts are about blame. They’ve done that in the Letby case.

“What I need to see occur is that there’s studying from the truth that right here and elsewhere, the board didn’t intervene after they had the chance to take action, that senior managers had the mindset that the way in which to take care of this was to say no, this isn’t a problem.”