Lucy Letby: Claims nursing director ignored warnings to be investigated

Alison Kelly has been referred to the fitness to practise process, the Nursing and Midwifery Council said

A former director at the hospital where Lucy Letby murdered seven babies is to be investigated over her fitness to practise, a regulator has confirmed.

Alison Kelly was director of nursing at the Countess of Chester Hospital until 2021 and has been accused of ignoring concerns about the neonatal nurse.

Letby, who also tried to kill six other babies, was jailed for life on Monday.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) said a referral, which was paused for Letby's trial, would now be looked at.

Ms Kelly, who has been suspended from her current role as director of nursing at the Northern Care Alliance-run Rochdale Care Organisation, and other managers at the Cheshire hospital have been accused of ignoring warnings about Letby.

On Friday, the neonatal nurse was found guilty of murdering and attempting to murder babies at the Countess of Chester between June 2015 and June 2016.

Her crimes made her the UK's most prolific child serial killer in modern British history and she was given multiple whole-life terms - one for each offence - at Manchester Crown Court on Monday.

Lucy Letby murdered seven babies and attempted to murder six others while working as a neonatal nurse

During her trial, the court heard how a number of consultants working with Letby had started to raise concerns about her association with babies collapsing as early as 2015.

She put in a grievance against her employer, which found in her favour, after she was moved to clerical duties, and senior doctors were forced to apologise and even attend mediation.

One of the consultants, Dr Stephen Brearey, suggested NHS managers should be held accountable in the same way that medics are.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that he "absolutely" would like to see regulation of hospital administrators, "because doctors and nurses all have their regulatory bodies that we have to answer to, and quite often we'll see senior managers, who have no apparent accountability... and they move to other trusts".

"You worry about their future actions," he said.

"There doesn't seem to be any system to make them accountable and for them to justify their actions in a systematic way."

The NMC said Ms Kelly's referral had been paused pending the outcome of the trial at the request of the police and she had now been referred to the fitness to practise process.

The government has ordered an independent inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Letby's crimes to ensure "vital lessons are learned".

However, Dr Brearey said he would like to see a statutory inquiry.