Former health minister says medical examiners, who spot cases of intentional harm, could have been in place earlier. Jeremy Hunt has said ministers took “too long” to introduce medical examiners to investigate deaths in the NHS, as he apologised to the families of Lucy Letby's victims.
Giving evidence at the Thirlwall inquiry on Thursday, the former health secretary said he had “ultimate responsibility” for the NHS at the time Letby committed her “appalling crime” of murdering babies at the Countess of Chester hospital in 2015 and 2016. Hunt, who was health secretary from 2012 to 2018, said his government took “too long” to introduce independent medical examiners to the NHS after they were first proposed in 2004, six years before the Conservatives came to power.
Medical examiners are senior doctors who carry out independent scrutiny of deaths that are not investigated by coroners. They were introduced widely last September, 20 years after they were first proposed as a result of the Harold Shipman inquiry in 2004, then again by the Francis inquiry into the Mid-Staffordshire scandal in 2013.
Source: Guardian, 9 January 2025
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