Shame on NHS bosses who put killer nurse Lucy Letby before the life of a child

A MONSTROUSLY evil devil in angel’s clothing, Lucy Letby will rightly die in jail.

Knowing that justice has been done, it’s tempting to turn away from the haunting testimonies of the parents whose newborn babies she callously murdered because the detail is so harrowing.

But read them we must. And then get angry at the institutional failure that allowed so many of these wholly unavoidable deaths to happen.

It’s often said that hospital consultants sometimes act as if they’re God.

But they’ve got nothing on some of the management at the Countess of Chester Hospital, who not only ignored staff warnings about Letby but actively overruled their concerns and made experienced consultants apologise to her.

An “investigation” is now under way, which will no doubt come up with several recommendations to ensure “lessons will be learned” so that “nothing like this will happen again”, yada-yada-yada.

We’ve heard this before and, frankly, anyone with common sense could, and should, have joined up the dots about the killer nurse in their midst long before she committed seven murders and attempted six more.

The annual loss statistics of any hospital baby unit are usually around the same level, so any spike in deaths should be an instant red flag.

Yet despite the sudden surge in unexplained losses — three in June 2015 alone — Letby being on duty for all of them, and various experienced consultants flagging up their concerns, management wilfully failed to act.

Why? One of the options, along with blatant incompetence and saving their own necks, is that they placed hospital reputation above patient safety.

This is not unusual in the world of big institutions.

The BBC ignoring the obvious signs of Jimmy Savile’s predatory crimes, the schools which “manage” a problematic, handsy teacher out of the door on a generous severance package and let them be someone else’s problem at the next job and, recently, the British museum being “plundered for years” by a suspected thief working internally despite concerns being flagged up over dodgy sales on eBay.

Thirty years ago, I took a call from an estate agent who was renting a luxury penthouse flat to “Lady” Rosemary Aberdour, who worked for the charity arm of London’s National Hospital.

Someone from the hospital had asked him if he had seen her because she’d gone missing along with £2.7million from their accounts.

They hadn’t called the police at this point, because they were sure it was all just a misunderstanding.

Hmmm. I broke the story and, once the police got involved, it emerged that “Lady” Aberdour had bought herself a Bentley, had numerous staff, threw lavishly expensive parties in hired castles and lived in the aforementioned penthouse on a bank of the Thames.

All with the cash she’d snaffled from hospital coffers.

It also turned out that the real Lord Aberdour, based in Scotland, had written to The Times newspaper at the outset of her scam to state that she wasn’t his daughter but an imposter.

Vulnerable innocents

And still none of the hospital management did anything about it.

Again, why?

Probably, one suspects, a mixture of incompetence, embarrassment and desire to protect the reputation of the hospital and, therefore, themselves.

But the institutional failure that led to the heart-wrenching testimonies of the parents of Letby’s highly vulnerable victims is far worse.

At the very least, when concerns were first raised by her colleagues, she should have been moved away from a unit full of vulnerable innocents who cannot speak or fight back.

Yet, unforgivably, she was allowed to carry on killing, and the parents paid the price.

They now suffer from depression, rage, anxiety and guilt that they couldn’t save their children from Letby’s murderous hands.

But guilt for her killing spree should lay firmly with those who had a chance to intervene early on and actively failed to do so.

Shame on them.

Now the British Medical Association has called for a clampdown on “unaccountable” NHS bosses who, shockingly, aren’t professionally regulated in the way that medical staff are.

It also means they can often walk away from catastrophic mistakes like this one and simply waltz into another high-paying job elsewhere. It has to stop.

It’s too late for Letby’s innocent victims, but if tighter regulations and accountability make managers investigate concerns as soon as they’re raised, it will undoubtedly save lives in future.

How did Wills miss that golden chance?

PRINCE WILLIAM and Princess Charlotte recorded a video message to cheer on our Lionesses ahead of the Women’s World Cup final.

But why the hell didn’t William hop on a flight with his young daughter and go in person to the game?

Cynically speaking, the sight of them cheering from the stands would have been a fantastic PR boost not only for his popularity here but also in Australia, where the debate rumbles on over whether to dump the monarchy and become a republic.

His absence was a rare misstep by our future King.

After all, what’s the point of the monarchy if they don’t turn up for such an important event on the world stage?

Ewwwy chewy

THIS is the new Big Twist Burger, from biscuit brand Oreo and a chain of chicken shops.

It comes in a “burnt chocolate charcoal bun”.

Thanks for the clarification.

At first sight I thought it was that legendary “mummified” McDonald’s hamburger purchased by David Whipple of Utah in 1999 and still intact.

Whatever. I won’t be eating either of them.

Lawn & order, please

FEMINIST academic Dr Charlotte Proudman has accused a student of “male entitlement” after he warned her to keep off the grass at King’s College, Cambridge.

“If they catch you, you’ll get chucked out,” he shouted as she posed for a photo on the front lawn where, according to college rules, certain senior people are allowed to walk but students are not.

According to Dr Proudman, a research associate at the college, his comments “reflect male entitlement and a deep-rooted belief that women like me don’t belong”.

But do they? Maybe he thought everyone was banned from the grass?

Or maybe he’d been told off for walking on it in the past and was just passing on a friendly warning? Or maybe his comment was rooted in misogyny?

The point is that no one but the unidentified student knows the intent, so to project on to his comments what you feel is the truth (rather than know) is problematic.

There’s enough clear-cut sexism in the world to tackle head on without getting distracted by noisy sideshows of unproven conjecture.

All so jelly stupid

SPANISH activists have put up fake signs warning of jellyfish and falling rocks to deter the Brits from visiting certain beaches.

We spent our childhoods at the seaside dressed in thermals and anoraks, sitting on sharp gravel behind stripy wind-breakers as we tried to shield our soggy, rain-lashed jam sandwich from the sand-laden, howling gale that stung our faces.

Do they seriously think that a wobbly invertebrate and the threat of sporadic rock fall is going to put us off?

Puh. We kick sand in their faces.

Or should I say, les damos patadas de arena en la cara.

Name game

COLEEN ROONEY’S “team” have reportedly opted for The Real Wagatha Story, as a title for her forthcoming Disney documentary after Rebekah Vardy nabbed the rights to the pun Wagatha Christie.

Interesting. Coleen’s legal eagles did a marvellous job winning in court but, clearly, someone on her “team” dropped the ball when they didn’t head off this canny move at the pass and net such a potentially money-making asset for their star player.

(That’s enough football puns – Ed.)

Ugley truth

IT seems there’s a trend in America for naming your baby after places in Britain.

Lincoln is top with 5,599 boys and 124 girls, Kingston second with 2,900 boys and eight girls and London third with 1,064 girls and 222 boys.

Curiously, the options of Cocks, Shitterton, Ugley and Wetwang didn’t make the list.