CEO met ‘a great deal of resistance’ over admitting failures

A former chief executive of the Countess of Chester hospital said she faced “great resistance” over her preparations to admit its mistakes in its handling of concerns about baby deaths and the role of Lucy Letby.

Susan Gilby, who led The Countess of Chester Hospital Foundation Trust from September 2018 until December 2022, gave evidence on Monday to the public inquiry into the events there following Letby’s conviction in 2023.

Letby was convicted of murdering seven babies, and attempting to murder seven more, in 2015 and 2016 while working at the hospital. 

Dr Gilby’s oral evidence is the last to be heard by the inquiry before closing submissions next month. Lady Justice Thirlwall is expected to deliver her report in the autumn.

The CoCH chief executive told the inquiry she had commissioned a report into how the trust had responded to paediatricians’ initial concerns about neonatal deaths, ahead of Letby’s trial.

She said she planned to draw on it when verdicts were reached: “I personally would have stood there and said: ‘We made mistakes, there is learning, we are accountable for this, and we want to be held to account for how we implement that learning.

“But unfortunately, that is not how the NHS operates. There was a great deal of resistance to my intention to openly say that after the verdict. That was my intention, and that was known to be my intention, and it was made clear to me, ’that was not how we dealt with things’.”

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Source: HSJ, 24 February 2025