While working as a paediatric nurse at a Lincolnshire hospital, serial killer Beverley Allitt murdered four infants, attempted to murder three others, and caused grievous bodily harm to six more in 1991.
The chairman of the Countess of Chester Hospital from 2012, leading the trust during the period of Letby’s killings, was coincidentally the same man, Sir Duncan Nichol.
He retired from the NHS in 2019, a year after killer nurse Letby was arrested following a series of unexplained baby deaths on the neonatal unit where she worked.
He has since said the board were ‘misled’ about Letby, claiming the board had been ‘told explicitly that there was no criminal activity pointing to any one individual’ after reviews of the baby deaths were carried out in 2016.
However, doctors have said they had been raising concerns about Letby’s conduct and presence at each of the collapses and deaths throughout 2015, 2016 and 2017.
Parallels have been drawn between the killings of Letby and the crimes of Allitt. While working as a paediatric nurse at Grantham and Kesteven Hospital in Lincolnshire, Allitt was found to have murdered four infants, attempted to murder three others, and caused grievous bodily harm to another six.
The then 22-year-old attacked 13 children over a period of 59 days in 1991 using methods that were disturbingly similar to those used by Lucy Letby. Allitt was found to be injecting children in her care with air as well as huge doses of insulin.
She was convicted in 1993 and subsequently former judge the late Sir Cecil Clothier carried out a review into the circumstances surrounding the Allitt case in 1994.
Sir Duncan Nichol was asked by the Department of Health to contribute to the Clothier inquiry, examine the inquiry’s findings, report back, and instruct district health authorities in conjunction with hospitals on what needed to change in the wake of Allitt’s murders.
One senior health source the Manchester Evening News spoke to said Sir Duncan Nichol’s career path has caused concern about the NHS reusing leaders after major failings within the service.
“Whilst [Allitt] was many years ago, it’s not something you would forget if you were working in the NHS at the time – where was the corporate organisational memory? It was an immediate parallel for me,” they said.
“We were told explicitly that there was no criminal activity pointing to any one individual, when in truth the investigating neonatologist had stated that she had not had the time to complete the necessary in-depth case reviews.”
In response to Nichol’s statement, the hospital’s then chief executive, Tony Chambers, said ‘what was shared with the board was honest and open and represented our best understanding of the outcome of the reviews at the time’.
In 2015 and 2016, there was a significant rise in the numbers of babies who suffered serious and unexpected collapses in the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
Letby was the only member of the nursing and clinical staff who was on duty each time the collapses happened. Letby was sentenced last week to a whole life order at Manchester Crown Court.
Mr Chambers has said he first heard ‘serious concerns’ about the nurse in June 2016, a year after she was linked to a series of unusual infant deaths.
It was not until July 2016 that Letby was moved off the neonatal unit as senior doctors demanded action following the deaths of two triplet brothers, whom she was found to have killed.
Doctors had been raising concerns about Letby’s connection to suspicious incidents for almost two years but she was not reported to the police until May 2017. She was arrested a year later.
Consultants say they were urged ‘not to make a fuss’. Letby carried on working on the neonatal unit despite the warnings. The lead consultant at Chester’s neonatal unit has alleged bosses tried to silence doctors who spoke up.
A second doctor, Ravi Jayaram, said babies’ lives could have been saved if police were called sooner. He said: “I do genuinely believe that there are four or five babies who could be going to school now who aren’t.”
Dr Jayaram told the trial he wished he had gone straight to the police. “We were also beginning to get a reasonable amount of pressure from senior management at the hospital not to make a fuss.
In retrospect, we were all grown-ups and we should have stood up and not listened,” said Dr Jayaram. He alleged it took managers three months to respond to a request from consultants to meet them after the second time they raised concerns, in February 2016.
“We were also beginning to get a reasonable amount of pressure from senior management at the hospital not to make a fuss.
“In retrospect, I wished we had bypassed them and gone straight to the police. We by no means were playing judge and jury at any point but the association was becoming clearer and clearer and we needed to find the right way to do this. We were in an unprecedented situation.”
According to Dr Brearey, the CEO insisted the consultants apologise to Letby – warning them that a line had been drawn and there would be ‘consequences’ if they crossed it.
The jury heard, as concern grew about the correlation between the number of unexplained deaths while Letby was on duty, that by April 2016 the nurse was removed from night shifts and from then on only worked day shifts.
But the killing continued for another two months when Letby murdered the two triplets and attempted to murder three other babies. An inquiry has been ordered to examine the Letby killings further.
Countess CEO Tony Chambers resigned in September 2018 from his role as the chief executive of the hospital following Letby’s arrest in July 2018.
Mr Chambers said in a statement after Letby’s conviction: “All my thoughts are with the children at the heart of this case and their families and loved ones at this incredibly difficult time. I am truly sorry for what all the families have gone through.
“The crimes are appalling and I am deeply saddened by what has come to light. As chief executive, my focus was on the safety of the baby unit and the wellbeing of patients and staff.
“I was open and inclusive as I responded to information and guidance. There are always lessons to be learned and the best place for this to be achieved would be through an independent inquiry.
“I will co-operate fully and openly.”
Another of Letby’s former bosses, Alison Kelly, left her role as director of nursing at the Countess of Chester after allegations were made to her about the killer nurse by concerned doctors.
Ms Kelly has previously said in the national press: “It is impossible to imagine the heartache suffered by the families involved and my thoughts are very much with them. These are truly terrible crimes and I am deeply sorry that this happened to them.
“We owe it to the babies and their families to learn lessons and I will fully cooperate with the independent inquiry announced.”
“In light of information that has emerged during the trial of Lucy Letby, and the announcement of the independent inquiry, the Northern Care Alliance has suspended Alison Kelly.”
NHS England and the Countess of Chester Hospital trust did not provide a comment on Sir Duncan Nichol’s coincidental positions when the Manchester Evening News asked for comment.
