Lucy Letby may have been ‘scapegoat’ to cover up failures of understaffed, high-risk unit, bombshell Sun doc claims

A TOP consultant who worked alongside Letby believes she was used as “a scapegoat,” an exclusive Sun documentary will reveal. The whistleblower claims doctors pushed the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital too far, taking too many seriously-ill and premature babies. A whistleblower has claimed Lucy Letby may have been blamed in error for the spike in deaths and collapses at the Countess of Chester Hospital Credit: AP The whistleblower does not claim anyone intentionally engineered a criminal case Credit: Dan Charity The consultant raised a string of concerns – including lack of staffing Credit: CPS They then may have blamed Letby in error for the spike in deaths and collapses while “covering their own backs,” the insider told The Sun investigation produced in partnership with 5 Original Documentaries. The anonymous hospital consultant said: “I’m extremely worried that an innocent woman is holed up in prison when the evidence is extremely poor that she actually did anything wrong. Sign up for The Sun newsletter Thank you! “I personally wasn’t of the mind that there was a killer on the unit. I felt that there was probably a more simple explanation for what was going on. “If you’ve got doctors that really want this unit to run and don’t want it to be closed down, then if there’s someone or something else on the horizon that could be blamed, it’s a natural human trait to blame that other person or factor.” Letby is serving 15 whole-life orders after being convicted of murdering seven babies Credit: AFP Rob Pattinson, The Sun’s Investigations Editor Credit: The Sun The nurse was convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others at the hospital Credit: PA Letby has always denied the claims against her Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd In ‘Lucy Letby: Scapegoat?’ The whistleblower does not claim anyone intentionally engineered a criminal case, or tried to pin blame on Letby – insisting all actions were taken in good faith. He added: “I don’t know that anybody designed it thinking that there’d be a court appearance for murder some years down the line. I think the train came off the track somewhere. “There is an element of people saving their own backs. It’s entirely possible, in my view, that Lucy Letby was a scapegoat.” Letby is serving 15 whole-life orders after being convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others during 2015 and 2016. Most read in The Sun She has always denied the claims but has twice had appeals rejected. The whistleblower claims a central issue for the unit was its designation as a level 2 centre – meaning it could take non-twin babies from 27 weeks for high dependency care. It comes as… A mum says she believes her boy died of a sewage-linked bug that came from the taps months after Letby was removed from the unit Evidence that could have helped Letby’s defence ‘wasn’t heard in court‘ An unseen bombshell email sent by a doctor who was the only Letby eyewitness CONTRADICTS his evidence to jury A top surgeon’s damning verdict undermines the prosecution star witness He claims it was being forced to take higher risk babies, such as twins and triplets sharing a single placenta – at a time when it was understaffed and had an outbreak of infection. The week after Lucy Letby was removed the unit was dropped from a level 2 to a level 1. If the unit had been Level 1 all along the babies who died – including two vulnerable triplets and other babies with complications – may well have not been sent there. The consultant said: “I am of the view that Chester should not have had a level two special care baby unit. “This was a unit without serious medical backup, so the consultants would be on call from home. “The registrars were covering other units, the paediatric ward, the obstetric unit, A&E, so they can’t have been there all the time. “The babies are still as sick and so somebody has to cover that slack. And that’s of course the shift nurses and they’re left picking up the pieces.”The consultant claimed the problems were no secret. He said: “This isn’t something that was just hiding, that wasn’t known. This was well known. Any clinician would have said, we can’t run this level of service with those problems.” The hospital ‘should not have had a level two special care baby unit’, the consultant said Credit: PA Asked whether anything was done, they replied: “Apparently not. They just carried on running the service.” The consultant has raised a string of concerns – including lack of staffing, overcrowding and a known outbreak of potentially-lethal bug pseudomonas in the unit taps. The consultant said: “Staffing on the neonatal unit was recorded as a high risk on the divisional risk register.“The ratio of qualified to unqualified staff on the neonatal unit was 73% to 27% compared to 80-20 as recommended.” The anonymous consultant also questioned whether critically ill babies should have been accepted at Chester when other specialist units were available. They said: “The clinicians responsible should have just said no because there were other large units for instance in Liverpool that could have acted as an overflow from the North Wales hospital.” They questioned whether prestige played a part in maintaining the service, adding: “Is there a certain sense of being deluded about this? “Thinking that with the right nursing mix, the right medical mix all would be well. My feeling is that there was prestige there which probably shouldn’t have been.” In July 2016, Letby was moved away from clinical duties. At around the same time, the neonatal unit was downgraded from Level 2 to Level 1. The anonymous consultant has said this would likely have had “a significant effect” on deaths and collapses on the unit. He added: “This unit could not safely have been more than a level 1 unit. For the staffing problems to be combined with running as a level 2 unit was madness. “I think the phrase ‘perfect storm’ sums up this unit. He added: “The evidence as I’ve seen it is not nearly robust enough to have convicted Lucy Letby. In my view, it was not nearly clear enough to have called the police in.” A spokesperson at the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: “We understand the significant public interest in these matters and recognise the importance of providing reassurance to our patients and the local communities we serve. “However, it is equally as vital that we continue to recognise and cooperate with the ongoing legal processes and we are unable to comment on issues that remain subject to an ongoing investigation by Cheshire Police. “When it is appropriate to do so, we will provide further information about the actions we have taken to strengthen patient safety and governance and about any further actions we take or have taken to address the Thirlwall Report’s findings and recommendations.” WATCH & STREAM on 5 Lucy Letby: Scapegoat? Monday, September 21 at 10pm 3 comments3