Cardiff and Vale health chief will try avoid Letby case

That’s the assurance from Cardiff and Vale Health Board on how they will try avoid the harrowing scenario of the Lucy Letby murders happening in South Wales and the Vale.

Letby was jailed for life in August for murdering seven babies and attempting to kill six other infants at the Countess of Chester hospital.

She deliberately injected babies with air, force fed others milk and poisoned two infants with insulin.

At the health board’s annual meeting one of the questions from the public was ‘how will the health board assure the failings of management that allowed for Letby will not happen at Cardiff and Vale?’

Health board chief executive Suzzanne Rankin answered the question and her reply was blunt, saying “rogue practitioners” like Letby are “hard to find” while identifying a number of areas where the board could improve to try minimise a tragedy like Letby repeating itself in South Wales.

Ms Rankin identified three areas that need to be looked into including safety culture in the health board; the ability to collect, share and interpret data; and, if staff have concerns, they need to be heard.

She emphasised the need for better data collection so the health board could analyse information like neonatal deaths which would help identify abnormalities.

The chief executive also emphasised the importance of staff speaking out when they have fears and ensuring leaders of the organisation listened to concerns.

Last month Wales' health minister Eluned Morgan revealed the government’s new whistleblowing guidance, called "Speaking up", intended to "build a culture" where raising concerns is supported in the health service.

Cardiff and Vale Health Board are reacting to the Letby case (Image: CVUHB)

During the two-hour meeting held on September 21, Ms Rankin said: “There needs to be a coherent robust reliable approach to quality management and I think we have strong areas of that and areas where we can improve.

“Where we need to improve are areas such as having mechanisms to collect really good data, share that data and achieve insight from it.

“In relation to the Letby case, had the board in that institution been receiving reliable data to neonatal mortality and they were able to benchmark that data that would have given an indication of concern they would have needed to look at more deeply.

“Also, the ability to speak up safely and if you do speak up you are listened to by leaders of the organisation.”

Letby was jailed for life for murdering seven babies and attempting to kill six other infants (Image: PA Media)

Despite ensuring measures were being undertaken to avoid the harrowing story of Letby repeating itself in South Wales, Ms Rankin gave an honest assessment of the horrific situation that occurred in North England.

“We will work hard to implement a systematic approach,” said Ms Rankin. “Will that identify the rogue practitioner? Possibly not.

“Their intent is to avoid capture, but we will do our very best.”

Letby is to appeal against all her convictions.