Culpability of consultants in Letby case

[curaçao]

Why did any of the 7 consultants who suspected Letby nit go to the police themselves? If you had strong suspicions that someone had committed murders, wouldn't you feel you had a strong moral duty to go to the police? OK maybe it was protocol to report it to managers, but surely they had a moral duty to whistleblow and report their suspicions to the police
But they are trying very hard to deflect blame onto managers who wouldn't even have known Letby nor understood the medical stuff

Yes, and like I said, initially they were concerned about her competence, like both of the main consultants have publicly said.

I have some sympathy with you at least asking the question. All of it needs to be looked at by the inquiry that will follow the trial. I'm sure listening to some of the doctors that they are very personally harrowed and affected by this very question - as we all would be. Could I have done more or acted sooner?

There seem to have been so many factors at play. Firstly that it's very unusual and hard to believe that someone on staff would set out to murder babies, such instances are thankfully extremely rare, and big organisations often struggle with whistle-blowing and safeguarding issues. There are powerful professional hierarchical tensions between the different grades - doctors and nurses - in hospitals, that could engender scapegoating (or bullying) of staff as a smokescreen for wider poor treatment or malpractice by doctors (being too quick to blame others). And clearly in this case that institutional pressure to protect reputation at all costs can override duty of care. Much to ponder. Inevitably the inquiry will recommend sone changes in policy and approach but we also have to recognise that all the processes in the world won't prevent evil people doing evil things.

If you're blacklisted and can never find a nother job in your profession, and everyone tells you you are wrong, then possibly this is why they started doubting themselves.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/aug/19/trust-me-im-a-nurse-why-wasnt-lucy-letby-stopped-as-months-of-went-by

This article suggests that when they heard she would be returning to the ward in 2017, consultants did go to the police and were taken seriously - that is what started the external investigation.

Less than three months later, after weeks of anguished meetings about how to prevent Letby from returning to work, Brearey and his colleagues contacted Cheshire police.
It was that meeting, on 27 April 2017, that triggered one of the biggest and most complex murder investigations of recent times in Britain.
Brearey’s colleague Jayaram said he “could have punched the air” when the now-retired detective chief superintendent, Nigel Wenham, listened to the consultants and said that their concerns were “something that [the police] have to be involved with”.
Letby had been just six days from returning to work on the neonatal unit at this point. Instead, she never set foot on the ward again. The next time senior doctors would see her was when her picture appeared on the television news, after her arrest more than a year later, in July 2018.

So while I don't think they were really culpable, the idea that the consultants couldn't have raised it in 2015 with the police as it would have just been batted away by senior management doesn't hold up.