Letby trust CEO ‘was fit and proper’, claims chair

The former chair of the Countess of Chester Hospital said its then chief executive did not meet the threshold for failing a “fit and proper person” test, despite criticism of his treatment of paediatricians and their concerns about Lucy Letby.

Sir Duncan Nichol was giving evidence to the Thirlwall Inquiry into Letby’s murder of babies on the hospital’s neonatal unit from 2015-16. He was chair from 2012-19.

He was asked about Tony Chambers — the CEO at the time — requesting paediatric consultants attend a mediation session with Letby. The doctors had raised concerns about a link between her and babies’ deaths, leading to a falling out, and as of early 2017, she had successfully raised a grievance, and was exploring a return to clinical work.

Sarah Sutherland KC, acting for a group of families of the infants, asked Sir Duncan whether Mr Chambers had sought to “coerce” the paediatricians into the mediation.

Sir Duncan, who was also the national NHS chief executive from 1989-94, said he did not believe the doctors had been forced.  

He told the inquiry hearing: “I don’t think Tony Chambers was not a ‘fit and proper person’. I think he was in the middle of a process. I don’t believe the paediatricians were coerced into mediation. I don’t fully subscribe to this point, to the level of saying Tony Chambers wasn’t a fit and proper person.”

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Source: HSJ, 2 December 2024