Original Summary

Watch: Former consultant hopes Letby inquiry recommendations will prevent deaths happening again 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." Gibbs, who began working in Chester in 1994 and is now retired, agreed with the report's finding that hospital executives had multiple opportunities to act and potentially save babies' lives while the deaths were happening. "But it was during that 11 months after Lucy Letby was moved off the unit, before the police got involved, that it was a very difficult atmosphere, very tense, very stressful dealing with the managers," he added. Managers "were determined to ensure that we accepted Lucy Letby had been wrongly suspected of doing any harm," the senior doctor explained. He also spoke of the failures of his and his wider team, specifically referencing a doctor who disregarded blood test results that suggested a baby had been poisoned with insulin in August 2015. While one of his colleagues had missed the relevance of the results when they came back from the lab, it had been a collective team failure, Dr Gibbs concluded. "Others of us were on call and covering the neonatal unit over the next week or two before the baby moved out of the unit. We all had the opportunity to review the notes." Cheshire Police / The inquiry looked into the actions of managers at the hospital where Lucy Letby worked Letby is serving 15 whole-life terms for the murders and has twice been denied permission to appeal against her convictions. The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), an independent body set up to examine potential miscarriages of justice, is currently reviewing her convictions. In the weeks and months after Letby was convicted, questions about the case arose in the form of online conspiracy theories and discourse from serious academics, including medical experts and statisticians. Gibbs said that the continuing support for Letby had taken a toll on him and other consultants, and that claims she had been wrongly convicted were "frustrating and difficult" to hear. "I particularly find the misinformation that's on the internet is difficult to deal with," he said. He added: "I haven't changed my mind that I think Lucy Letby is guilty." However, he emphasised that, because of the "calibre of some of the people who've raised concerns", it is "important" that the evidence used to convict Letby is being examined by the CCRC.

中文概览

中文标题： 莱比医院顾问称调查读来令人沉重

曾试图向医院管理层反映对露西·莱比担忧的资深儿科顾问医生约翰·吉布斯告诉BBC，最终调查报告读来令人沉重。他说顾问们应对报告中部分失职承担集体责任，并希望当初更早报警。瑟尔沃尔调查在莱比2023年被定罪后启动，报告称医院对新生儿病房婴儿保护完全失败，警方本应更早接到通知，管理层多次无视顾问担忧。吉布斯称感到辜负了婴儿并向家属道歉。

  • 情报分类：综合情报
  • 分类依据：医院调查与司法案件报道，属公共事件，不属其他类别，归综合情报。
  • 信息来源：英语新闻 / BBC News Top Stories
  • 发布时间：2026/9/16 04:43:08