Junior doctors had horrifying nickname for killer nurse Lucy Letby, inquiry hears

Lucy Letby was known as 'nurse death' by junior doctors at the NHS hospital where she murdered babies, an inquiry has heard.

Letby was sentenced last year to 15 whole-life orders after she was convicted across two trials of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others.

But concerns about a spike in baby deaths were not discussed at hospital board level until after the year-long attack spree of 'elephant in the room' Letby had ended, the public inquiry heard on Wednesday (September 11).

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The nurse had been removed from non-clinical duties after the deaths of two triplet boys and the suspected collapse of another boy at the Countess of Chester Hospital's neonatal unit on three successive days in June 2016.

Consultant paediatricians had urged executives to move Letby, 34, out of the unit on the grounds of 'patient safety' after a number of them had previously raised fears about her, the Mirror reports.

But the inquiry later heard from Nicholas de la Poer KC, the barrister speaking on behalf of the counsel to the inquiry, who said junior doctors at the hospital were referring to Letby as 'nurse death' by September 2016.

The barrister told the inquiry the revelation came from an interview the review team conducted with former Countess of Chester Hospital medical director Dr Ian Harvey.

Dr Harvey said during this initial interview that he had had to 'intervene with the neonatal lead' over the nickname given to Letby, Mr De la Poer KC told the inquiry led by Lady Justice Thirlwall in Liverpool.

Less than a fortnight after consultant paediatricians urged executives to move Letby out of the unit, chief executive Tony Chambers