The news that several former senior managers at the Countess of Chester Hospital have been arrested for gross negligence manslaughter should not surprise anyone who knows anything about Britain’s ailing and failing National Health Service (NHS). Although some people get good service from the NHS it’s well known that maternity, neonatal and elderly care services are particularly bad.
Those arrested come from the same hospital that killer nurse Lucy Letby worked at and although I cannot discuss the case against the former managers in too much detail due to sub judice reasons, I do need to say this: The arrests of these managers, who as with anybody accused of a crime have the right to be considered innocent until proven guilty, does not negate the conviction of Letby for the wilful murder of the babies that were entrusted to her care. It is quite possible for two things to be true at the same time. A hospital can be lethally dysfunctional and also have a killer nurse working in that hospital environment.
It is highly unlikely if not impossible that these arrests of senior former hospital management members will do anything to exonerate Letby who has not only been convicted of these appalling crimes but has also failed to successfully appeal against her conviction, such is the weight of evidence against her. For more information on that massive weight of evidence against Letby then I would strongly suggest that you read Christopher Snowdon’s excellent piece from The Critic magazine on that subject which can be found HERE and at the end of this article.
The BBC has reported on these latest arrests of those formerly involved in the management of the Countess of Chester Hospital and said:
Three former senior staff at the hospital where nurse Lucy Letby murdered seven babies and attempted to kill seven others have been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter.
They worked on the senior leadership team at the Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015 and 2016 and were bailed after being questioned on Monday.
The arrests came after an investigation into potential corporate manslaughter at the hospital was opened in 2023, and then widened in March this year to include gross negligence manslaughter.
Letby, 35, from Hereford, is serving 15 whole life prison sentences after targeting babies at the hospital’s neonatal unit between June 2015 and June 2016.
She was convicted of making two attempts to kill one of the babies.
Cheshire Police said the arrests “did not impact on the convictions of Lucy Letby for multiple offences of murder and attempted murder”.
These arrests do not surprise me as there’s been multiple scandals surrounding NHS hospitals and NHS services. The NHS pays out millions in compensation every year to patients and relatives of patients who have suffered due to NHS incompetence. Even in my own family and friendship circles there’s been at least one death, several instances of piss poor treatment and of several misdiagnosis of serious conditions. That’s in addition to the general bad, rude and incompetence treatment that many others in my circles have suffered from at the hands of the NHS.
What does surprise me about this latest case is the nature of the offences that these former managers have been arrested for. These individuals have not been arrested for the lesser crime of ‘corporate manslaughter’ where the maximum penalty is a hefty fine but instead for ‘gross negligence manslaughter’, a much more serious offence that can theoretically result in a life sentence for those convicted. Those arrested have not yet been named as they have not yet been charged and brought before a Magistrates Court, which is the usual point these days when a suspect is publicly named. The BBC report also said that Cheshire Police are also investigating troubling incidents at another hospital, Liverpool Women’s Hospital, where killer nurse Letby served as part of her training.
At this stage the police are remaining tight lipped over what they’ve uncovered and it is unlikely that we the public will find out until any trial comes about. This quietness by the police may well be to protect the integrity of the investigation and to avoid putting stuff out in the public domain that might at some point in the future be exploited by the defence counsel. It might also be the case that in the future that the Crown Prosecution Service may downgrade the current offences to something that the Crown is more likely to win in a Crown Court trial. At this stage everything is up in the air. However, this case when it does come to trial could be a very interesting one for those of us who have been mightily concerned about how badly Britain’s National Health Service has been run and managed.
Links
Christopher Snowdon’s excellent article taking aim at the ‘Lucy Letby truthers’.
https://thecritic.co.uk/the-lucy-letby-truthers/
BBC report on the latest arrests at the Countess of Chester Hospital
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62ddkde7y5o