Senior doctors are calling for stricter oversight of NHS managers following allegations that hospital administrators failed to address grave errors related to the case of child serial killer Lucy Letby. The Telegraph has more.
Senior doctors are demanding a crackdown on “unaccountable” NHS managers after hospital bosses were accused of “walking away from life-destroying mistakes” in the case of child serial killer Lucy Letby.
The British Medical Association, which represents doctors, led calls for senior health service administrators to be held accountable to a regulator akin to the General Medical Council (GMC), which can strike off doctors who have harmed patients.
The calls came as victims’ families and MPs warned that the inquiry ordered by Steve Barclay, the Health Secretary, into how Letby was able to attack or kill 13 babies will not have the power to conduct a proper investigation.
A statement from solicitors representing two of the families affected said the inquiry was “inadequate” because “as a non-statutory inquiry, it does not have the power to compel witnesses to provide evidence or production of documents and must rely on the goodwill of those involved to share their testimony. This is not good enough”.
The families were backed by Labour. Wes Streeting, the Shadow Health Secretary, said the inquiry needed “the full force of the law behind it”.
Concerns over the role of NHS managers in the Letby case were sparked by the revelation that paediatricians at the Countess of Chester Hospital had repeatedly raised concerns about the nurse, which were not acted on by senior administrators.
In one case, a consultant was told: “Action is being taken… All emails cease forthwith.”
David E. Ward, a retired cardiologist, warned that NHS managers are unaccountable and said those who refused to listen to whistleblowers’ concerns “have blood on their hands”.
Sir Duncan Nichol, the former chairman of the NHS trust at which Letby worked, told the BBC he believed the board of the Countess of Chester Hospital was “misled” by hospital bosses and told there was “no criminal activity pointing to any one individual”.
Doctors say the powers of managers in hospitals has increased over time to an extent that non-clinical administrators are now overruling clinical advice or decisions.
Medics’ demands for greater accountability for managers were backed by senior Tory MPs. One minister said: “Hospital managers’ instincts are to cover things up instead of investigate them, and it has led to patients dying. There is a widespread, systemic problem, and it definitely needs sorting out.”
Tony Chambers, the Countess of Chester Hospital’s Chief Executive during the period in which Letby murdered seven babies and attempted to murder six others, went on to hold a string of other lucrative NHS positions.
Prof. Phil Banfield, an obstetrician who chairs the BMA’s U.K. council, said doctors believed there was a need for “non-clinical managers in the NHS and other health service providers to be regulated, in line with the manner in which clinical staff are by professional bodies”.
Dr. Kevin O’Kane, a consultant in acute internal medicine, added that “there is no excuse for not bringing in professional regulation for NHS managers”, while Marc Aitken, a consultant rheumatologist, said “the lesson from the Lucy Letby case” was that “NHS management should face the same rigorous scrutiny of their practice as clinicians”.
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