The former chief executive of the hospital where Lucy Letby murdered babies has apologised to the victims’ families but denied discouraging police from launching an investigation.
Tony Chambers told the Thirlwall inquiry he “wholeheartedly accepted” that the Countess of Chester hospital’s “systems failed” and that there were missed opportunities to stop the nurse sooner.
However, he stopped short of identifying his own mistakes when asked six times to give examples of his personal failures.
Beginning his evidence at Liverpool town hall on Wednesday, Chambers said: “Right at the outset I’d just want to offer my heartfelt condolences to the families whose babies are at the heart of this inquiry.
“I can only imagine – well, I can’t imagine – the impact this has had on your lives and I am truly sorry for the pain that may have been prolonged by any decisions or actions that I took in good faith.
“I am very grateful to have this opportunity to take part openly and honestly in this inquiry and I hope the answers can be arrived at and recommendations made.”
Letby, now 34, is serving 15 whole-life prison terms after being convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder another seven on the hospital’s neonatal unit between June 2015 and June 2016.
The inquiry, led by Lady Justice Kathryn Thirlwall, is examining the events surrounding the rise in deaths and collapses that year, which were first identified after three sudden and unexplained deaths in just 14 days in June 2015.
Chambers, who said he was only made aware of the deaths on 29 June 2016, told the inquiry in his witness statement: “I wholeheartedly accept that the operation of the trust’s systems failed and there were opportunities missed to take earlier steps to identify what was happening.”
Questioned repeatedly by counsel to the inquiry, Nicholas de la Poer KC, on whether Chambers accepted any personal blame, he said: “It’s really, really difficult to answer that question Mr De la Poer.
“As a chief executive, as a board, you are very reliant on the processes that exist within the hospital that are being put in place, that have been assured by independent people, that they are robust and good and therefore I suppose that is the failure – that we just didn’t see it.”
De la Poer said Chambers was not identifying any personal failure, prompting the former hospital boss to concede: “I take fully [sic] and accept that as the accountable officer for the trust I must take some responsibility for that, take responsibility for that.”
Chambers went on to deny that he discouraged the police from launching a criminal investigation when executives met senior officers in March 2017.
Minutes of the meeting show that the then chief executive told police there was “no evidence other than coincidence” and that executives believed the unexplained deaths and collapses were “certainly not criminal”.
“What we were saying is we can’t find any evidence of criminality – you’re the experts, please help us,” he said.
By the time of this meeting in May 2017, three external reviews had not ruled out deliberate or unintentional harm by Letby and several senior clinicians and the then deputy head of nursing, Sian Williams, were pushing for a police investigation.
De La Poer said Chambers failed to give the police a full account of the allegations against Letby that had been raised repeatedly by consultant paediatricians.
“I think thats an unfair proposition,” he replied. “We shared with the police very openly and candidly what we genuinely believed to be the position as we understood it at the time.”
The inquiry continues.
