A doctor kept a “drawer of doom” with evidence against Lucy Letby but refused to share it with senior nursing staff, it has been claimed.
The Thirlwall Inquiry heard how consultant Dr Stephen Brearey asked for Letby to be removed from the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester in the summer of 2016.
Letby was convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others between June 2015 and June 2016.
Karen Rees, who was head of nursing at the time, told the hearing how Dr Brearey had a “gut feeling” about the nurse, but would not provide further evidence.
Ms Rees said she had approached the consultant in June 2016 after hearing that he and consultant Ravi Jayaram had concerns about the nurse.
“I said: ‘Look, you need to share with me why you’ve got these concerns, and why, and how do you think she’s purposefully harming babies?” she told the inquiry, which is looking into how the deaths could have been prevented.
“His answer to me, and I remember it clearly, because he said: ‘I’ve got a gut feeling and I’ve got a drawer of doom’ and he pointed to a drawer in his desk.
“So I said to him will you share the contents of that drawer, of which he refused. He just said she needs to be moved off the neonatal unit. I am aware that she’s on this weekend.
“So I said to him: ‘I can’t remove a nurse from a clinical practice just because you’ve got a feeling and a drawer of doom which … you will not share with me. So I wasn’t getting anywhere with him.”
‘I felt bullied and intimidated’
Ms Rees said Dr Brearey later rang her at home, demanding for a second time that Letby be removed from the neonatal unit, but still would give no further details about why he suspected the nurse.
“I felt like I was being bullied and intimidated, I didn’t find it a very professional conversation,” she said.
“Why tell me he’s got a drawer of doom and not share the contents with me?”
Ms Rees said she did not suspect Letby because she had been told by the neonatal ward manager that several of the babies who died or collapsed had suffered congenital problems, sepsis or necrotising enterocolitis.
She said that she thought there may be a personal issue between Letby and the consultants that was clouding their judgment.
“I thought it might be personal because I’ve had incidents before where consultants have demanded I move nurses for varying other reasons,” she added. “You have to have more than a gut feeling and a drawer of doom to remove somebody.”
Anne Murphy, who was lead nurse of children’s services at the Countess of Chester, also told the inquiry that she initially did not suspect Letby, believing her presence at the deaths and the collapses was “coincidence” and “supposition”.
“No, I didn’t have any concerns,” she said.
“The concern was literally that she was on the unit when all of the incidents had taken place, [but] she wasn’t looking after each of those babies, so you know, it was a coincidence, in this situation it was supposition.
“She unfortunately was there on those days, but there was no indication that she was causing any harm to those babies.”
Ms Murphy said it was because the babies died from various conditions, and that several post-mortems had given a natural cause of death, it was difficult to pinpoint what Letby might have been doing to the infants.
“What could she have done to those babies?” she added. “We could never find any evidence to support any wrongdoing.
“I don’t think we felt as nurses that we could accuse her of doing some harm without actual evidence and the fact that the babies appeared to die of you know varying conditions and there was nothing at post-mortem to say that the was an different at that time, I don’t think we felt that it was fair that a nurse should be accused.
“If that had been a member of the medical staff I would have felt the same thing you know, what proof did we have that there was any wrongdoing?”
The inquiry continues on Tuesday with evidence from members of the risk and safety team at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
