We Need To Talk About Lucy Letby

4. The Many Failings On The Countess' Neonatal Unit

Following the deaths of two triplets in June 2016, The Countess invites The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) to conduct a service review of its neonatal unit “following re-designation from level 2 Local Neonatal Unit (LNU) to level 1 Special Care Unit (SCU) in July 2016 due to concerns about increasing neonatal mortality”, a downgrade that means the unit no longer admits higher risk babies under 31 weeks gestational age. The review is published in February 2017 and presents a catalogue of failings on the unit. In this episode Michael and Peter begin to discuss the RCPCH report.

We Need To Talk About Lucy Letby is a podcast series hosted by statistician Peter Elston and retired doctor Michael McConville. Lucy Letby was a neonatal nurse at The Countess of Chester Hospital in NW England who was convicted in August 2023 of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder a further six on seven occasions, though she was found not guilty on two counts of attempted murder and verdicts could not be reached in another six. In this series, Peter and Michael discuss the many aspects of the case and the steps over more than ten years that led to Lucy ending up in HMP Bronzefield serving 14 full life terms. But could it be the worst miscarriage of justice in British legal history?