Is Lucy Letby a victim of a miscarriage of justice?

 

Most of us weren't at the trial of Lucy Letby so we haven't heard all the evidence that was presented at the trial. The trial lasted 10 months and she had legal representation. At the end of the trial the jury found her guilty of killing babies. If she did kill the babies, I don't think any motive has been established for why she did so.

I spent a number of years in an hospital action group and I learned a great deal about how hospital management connives, manipulate, intimidate, to cover things up to protect the hospital and their own jobs.

The Kennedy Breast Care Review that was carried out by Professor Sir Ian Kennedy, was set up to investigate the breast and vascular surgeon Ian Paterson, who worked at Solihull Hospital. Paterson was given a 20-year jail sentence in 2017, after being convicted of 17 counts of wounding with intent and 3 counts of unlawful wounding. In his report, Professor Kennedy wrote:

 "In reading this Review, you will see and recognise themes which have figured in a number of reports on the NHS over the years. Indeed, it has been said more than once, that, as regards reviews of the NHS, the place may be different, the date may be different, the details may be different, but the underlying issues are all too familiar. They include challenges in managing difficult and powerful staff, difficulties in raising concerns, inter-professional animosities, dysfunctional organisation, failures of communication, lack of openness, a particular style of leadership, lack of engagement by the Board in the quality and safety of care."

What Professor Kennedy found was that medical staff at Solihull Hospital were very wary of raising concerns about other medical colleagues which one described as "raising his head above the parapet." The Hospital Trust was trying to become a Foundation Trust and they didn't want any concerns about Ian Paterson to negatively impact. The Review found that senior managers at Solihull were in thrall to confidentiality and found refuge in it as a way of managing an increasingly difficult problem, keeping control of it and containing it. Professor Kennedy wrote that one of the major indictments of management in the NHS, was that it is inward looking, over defensive, and prone to destroy by a variety of means, those who suggest that the emperor has no clothes. "This is not unique to this Review. It is a blight on the NHS and one of the principal areas where lessons must be learned."

There are similarities with the way in which the Lucy Letby case was handled by the Countess of Chester Hospital and the deaths of babies at Bristol Royal Infirmary, who died after botched open heart surgery by incompetent surgeons. There's a pattern of trying to cover hospital failings up, intimidating whistle-blowers, and kicking things into the long grass. It's possible that there may have been other reasons why these babies in the Lucy Letby case died, and I understand that her defence team are trying to establish that and prove that Letby is a victim of a miscarriage of justice.