Hospital boss denies claims he stalled police investigation into Letby baby deaths

A hospital boss has described claims that he stalled a police investigation into baby deaths, and sought to ruin the careers of two consultants, as “outrageous”, the public inquiry into the crimes of Lucy Letby has heard.

Former chief executive Tony Chambers did not ask Cheshire Constabulary to look into a mortality spike at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit until more than 10 months after he first became aware of concerns that Letby may be deliberating harming infants. Instead the hospital opted to commission a series of reviews into the increased number of deaths on the unit in 2015 and 2016, while Letby was redeployed to an administrative role, in response to fears voiced by consultant paediatricians after the deaths of two triplet boys on successive days in June 2016.

In May 2017 police were finally brought in to investigate the concerns, although plans were in place weeks before to return Letby to the unit, after she launched a grievance against her redeployment, which was upheld. The Thirlwall Inquiry today heard Mr Chambers had a meeting with the hospital’s HR director on May 11 2017, shortly after he spoke to police chiefs.

READ MORE: Lucy Letby hospital boss ‘sorry to families for pain prolonged by his decisions’

A note of the meeting, concerning senior consultants Dr Ravi Jayaram and Dr Stephen Brearey, was outlined “plan re management” and listed the words “GMC”, “mitigation from whistleblowers” and “action plan to manage out”. Mr Chambers said he thought at the time the police did not seem to feel a criminal investigation was “likely”.

He said: “I needed to have it clear in my mind what would happen if this stance was not accepted by the consultants and there was resistance to try to move