One of the senior doctors who tried to raise concerns about Lucy Letby with hospital managers has told the BBC the final inquiry report makes for “grim reading”.
Consultant paediatrician Dr John Gibbs worked at the Countess of Chester Hospital throughout the period in 2015 to 2016 when Letby murdered seven babies, and attempted to murder seven more, on the neonatal unit.
He said that he accepted that consultants must bear “collective” responsibility for some of the failings identified in the report.
“I wish we consultants had been brave enough to follow our suspicions and escalate things to the police earlier,” he told the BBC.
“When I say, ‘we consultants’, I am responsible as well and if my other consultant colleagues didn’t go to the police, I should have.”
The Thirlwall Inquiry was launched after former nurse Letby was convicted in 2023, and the final report was published on Tuesday.
In the 822-page document, Lady Justice Thirlwall described “a complete failure to protect babies on the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital”.
The report found that the police “should have been notified earlier than they were” and that hospital managers had repeatedly dismissed consultants’ concerns.
Reflecting on the findings for the first time, Gibbs said: “I wasn’t expecting it to be an easy read and it certainly isn’t. I’d imagine it’s an extremely difficult read for the parents of the babies concerned.
“As I admitted when I appeared before the inquiry to give evidence, I feel we failed the babies and I apologise to the families for that.”