Letby told consultant she was coming back to unit in ‘bizarre’ meeting – inquiry

A consultant has detailed a "bizarre" encounter they had with Lucy Letby where she said her return to the neonatal unit was happening "whether you liked it or not". The discussion with Dr Ravi Jayaram took place in late March 2017, just days before Letby was expected to be allowed back on the unit under close supervision.

Letby had been away from the unit after she was moved to desk duties in July 2016 following concerns from seven paediatric consultants that she might be intentionally harming infants. The shifts came after the unit experienced multiple unexpected deaths and collapses.

As part of the inquiry proceedings, it emerged that Letby had fought her clerical reassignment through a grievance process, which also divulged allegations of junior doctors referring to an unnamed nurse as an "angel of death" and suspicions of babies being harmed.

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Hospital bosses later called consultants to a meeting in January 2017 which became “very odd” when chief executive Tony Chambers told them they had to apologise to Letby and her family, said Dr Jayaram.

Dr Jayaram recalled Mr. Chambers' words during his testimony: "He started relating to us how they have evidence from the grievance procedure we had treated Lucy Letby very badly and how she could have good grounds to report us to the GMC (General Medical Council) for some of our behaviour."

"Tony Chambers said ‘I’m drawing a line under it, you will draw a line under it and if you cross that line there will be consequences’. We were all just absolutely blindsided by this."

Dr Jayaram recounted how Karen Rees, the head of nursing in urgent care, read out a statement from Letby, saying: "It was very assertive. I remember the