The chief executive who oversaw the Letby scandal was stopped from running another trust by former staff who were “outraged and distressed” that he had applied, it has been claimed.

crispyeyebrows · 24/08/2023 16:57

The chief executive who oversaw the Letby scandal was stopped from running another trust by former staff who were “outraged and distressed” that he had applied, it has been claimed.
Tony Chambers worked in a series of interim roles in other NHS trusts after he left the Countess of Chester Hospital under the cloud of the police investigation.
He was in line to become the permanent chief executive at a trust but was blocked after his record handling the Lucy Letby case was revealed, a senior NHS source has claimed.

NHS England brought forward a change in its guidelines on the appointment of managers, implementing them a week before the verdict of the Letby trial was reached.
The guidance, proposed by the Kark review of 2019, means senior leaders will have all cases of misconduct on their record until the age of 75. Chambers has not been found guilty of any misconduct.

A source at the Queen Victoria Hospital in West Sussex, where Chambers worked from February to June of this year, said that had the guidance been in place before his appointment he would not have got the job. Chambers resigned 12 days after Letby started giving evidence at her trial. The trust said that it followed “due process” in appointing him.

Last week Dr Stephen Brearey claimed that Chambers insisted that consultants blowing the whistle apologise to Letby and warned them that a line had been drawn and there would be “consequences” if they crossed it.

Tony Chambers resigned 12 days after Lucy Letby started giving evidence at her trial

Brearey also claimed that Chambers had told them he had spent a lot of time with Letby and her father, and had apologised to them. Chambers said his comments to consultants had been taken out of context.

Sources have said that staff at the Countess of Chester took steps to ensure Chambers’s new employers were aware of what had happened.

He earned £345,000 as interim chief executive of Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals, where he worked between January 2020 and August 2021.

He then moved to Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust, where he earned £90,000 for a six-month stint between August 2021 and January last year. Chambers was thought to be the frontrunner to become its permanent boss until the trust was alerted to the Letby scandal by a member of the Countess of Chester’s staff, who was “distressed and outraged” that Chambers could lead another trust, a source said.

Dr Mairi Mclean, chairwoman of Royal Cornwall Hospitals, telephoned an executive in Chester, and following the call, Chambers was not appointed.

Both trusts said that they followed due process in appointing Chambers.

He also worked in Salford, for the Northern Care Alliance, and last year became a director at Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospital Trust.

Chambers, the son of a nurse, first worked on the critical care ward at a hospital in Bolton. After three years of nursing, he had a spell in the press office before moving into management.

Robert Francis KC, who chaired the inquiry into the Mid Staffordshire NHS scandal, called this week for a system that could strike off NHS managers found guilty of serious failings. Two Letby whistleblowers called for managers to be regulated by an independent body with statutory powers similar to the General Medical Council.

Chambers did not respond to a request for comment last night. Last week he said he was “truly sorry for what all the families have gone through”.

Trust’s nursing director referred to watchdog

An NHS director accused of failing to act on doctors’ warnings about Lucy Letby has been referred to the nursing watchdog.

Alison Kelly was suspended from her role as director of nursing at the Northern Care Alliance Trust after she was alleged in court to have ignored consultants who raised serious concerns about the nurse.

It has emerged that Kelly was referred to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) in January 2021 by consultants including Dr Stephen Brearey, one of the whistleblowers who repeatedly raised concerns about the number of neonatal deaths at Countess of Chester Hospital.

However, the NMC was asked by police to “pause” its examination until Letby’s trial concluded. It has now resumed its inquiries.

“We can confirm that Alison Kelly has been referred to our fitness to practise process,” a spokesman told The Daily Telegraph.

“Now there’s a verdict, we’ll move forward and look at the concerns raised with us very carefully, and take regulatory action if we need to. This is an ongoing case, so we’re unable to discuss it further at this time.”

Kelly was director of nursing at the Chester hospital and was the first person consultants turned to when they noticed an unusual rise in mortality in late 2015. After the unexplained deaths of five babies, consultants decided to contact hospital chiefs.

An email was sent to Kelly about the deaths and the link with Letby highlighted. However, Dr Ravi Jayaram, one of the consultants, said they were “fobbed off”.

He told the court that Kelly said to them, “Let’s see what happens.” Letby was allowed to continue working.

Kelly had previously said: “It is impossible to imagine the heartache suffered by the families involved and my thoughts are very much with them. These are truly terrible crimes and I am deeply sorry that this happened to them.

“We owe it to the babies and their families to learn lessons and I will fully co-operate with the independent inquiry announced.”

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The chief executive who oversaw the Letby scandal was stopped from running another trust by former staff who were “outraged and distressed” that he had applied, it has been claimed.