I’m going to start this by saying I’m not arguing with you. I accept that me not just saying the hospital was utter
rit is different to how most people feel and that’s ok. I have acknowledged they, especially management, made catastrophic mistakes that would have prevented harm. What I am trying to express is that I do feel that it could happen anywhere and that what you see at the CoCH is what you would see anywhere if somebody nefarious decided to kill vulnerable people. That of course doesn’t mean that you don’t investigate how it happened or how it could be prevented from happening again. Unfortunately, it probably will happen again. Because proportionately, healthcare has a huge volume of people, some of them will be psychopaths. It’s not common but it is a phenomenon (doodoodoododo).
How many units and hospitals are funded well and staffed well currently? The unit was typical in that respect. In the Allitt case, firstly the doctors were blamed all through the trial for their “poor care” that was (according to the defence) the cause of all the children’s deaths and collapses and then after trial they were still blamed for being the terrible awful unit that allowed Beverly Allitt to kill. That’s a rough ride isn’t it. There was systemic under funding of the NHS at that time too. The unit probably was a bit
rit. They were desperately understaffed and that’s precisely why they took on the slightly odd and under qualified BA. The lady that gave her the job killed herself because I’m sure she saw it as having “caused the deaths” too. I think that’s incredibly sad. I think Beverly Allitt would have harmed several people no matter where she’d worked or lived. Maybe her own children, maybe someone else’s.
All I think is that this picture we have of CoCH, with chaos and mistakes, would be the picture whatever way this happened and wherever it happened because it’s exactly the same picture as every other HCSK’s mayhem. Unless a heroic doctor managed to catch a HCSK the first time they ever attempted anything evil and stopped them as they manically laughed and held the needle full of poison up in the air! If only it were that obvious! And then of course, that kind of scenario would be a case of he said she said, there’d be no trial or investigation even because as we’ve seen with this case sometimes blatant and obvious acts of harm are still difficult to get to court or get a guilty verdict on. That’s because of the nature of a hospital environment, it’s where people are sick and sometimes die. In some departments they die more often than others. If you want to kill people it’s a pretty great set up for you. You essentially can’t catch somebody until they start and you can’t stop somebody until there is a pattern. Troubling. Of course measures should still be taken to try to prevent it. That’s a given.
If they’d stopped her at baby D there’d still be 3 murdered babies. Would she have got convicted if it had all stopped there? I’d like to think so but who knows.If it would have been difficult to have convicted her if she’d stopped at D think how difficult would have been for the staff working with her to have noticed by baby D. At that point Breary felt it was strange and there seemed to be a link. Colleagues thought it was strange how they died - “were they that different?”. It’s kind of an incredible that statement, her friend had literally cracked it by then. She had noticed. I wonder how she feels. I worry often about people like her. I wonder how they feel with the inquiry coming up. Terrified. All because Letby chose their unit to carry out horrendous crimes.
Having a feeling that something wasn’t right isn’t a huge amount to work with. The management absolutely should have looked into it then when Breary first said there was something going on and a link but what would they have thought at that point really. Incompetency most likely and then what? Letby wouldn’t be sitting in prison, she might be working at a different unit. She might have got a taste for going in and causing chaos and moving on quickly enough to not be found out at all. She could have been caught red handed at the next unit she worked in but that probably wouldn’t have been because it had more funding or was wonderfully organised and run in a way that catches murderers lurking cotside at night. In fact something that could have likely made life harder for her is if the layout was different and she couldn’t have hidden so well. That would be a good thing to come from inquiry. It would be a stretch to say that whoever designed the layout of that unit decades ago caused the deaths though wouldn’t it. Hopefully they’ll look at any others that have similar flaws though.
I think poorly funded hospitals absolutely are prone to being abused by HCSK and I think that’s probably a deeply political issue. I don’t know enough stats to look at whether developed countries have less HCSK than developing countries in ratio to their population of healthcare workers. It would be an interesting study.
I think poorly funded hospitals are also prone to letting poor practice cultures fester away like the ongoing maternity scandal but I do not think there’s evidence of that kind of poor care environment in this case.
Was Liverpool Women’s short staffed and poorly run? Was it a terrible unit? Did the care and management ‘cause’ babies to die? Two baby deaths are being investigated there. Possibly the dead and dying babies she mentions before she kills baby C. Letby sings LWH praises, they gave her lots more support when babies died that she seemed to have enjoyed
. Are they a terrible hospital? Even if those two deaths aren’t attributed to Letby in the end, do you think she walked round there like Miss Honey or do you think it’s likely she messed with babies when she could there too? Should they have noticed, was their management as poor as CoCHs not to have noticed that two babies died with Letby involved. Hopefully if she was involved there will be charges and a trial. Then LWH care and practices and systems and funding will be picked apart too and the picture will likely look the same as CoCH except I’m guessing nobody raised concerns at all about Letby there. Will they be declared a failing unit afterwards
were they a failing unit beforehand
would she have managed two murders on any unit with vulnerable voiceless patients anywhere in this country or other countries - my guess is yes. Imagine if she’d gone to Arrowe Park, what could she have managed in a Level 3 NICU. If she’d not been manic like she was with the triplets.. I dread to think how many victims she could have had.
I want an inquiry that challenges everything, makes changes and helps to prevent this from happening again. I think they should also be assessing what changes made from the Allitt inquiry actually ever took place, particularly around access to and monitoring of drugs. I’m not stopping anybody saying whatever they like about CoCH, the management or the doctors and staff at the hospital. I don’t begrudge anybody any anger over any of it. I just think what I think
I think the picture of the CoCH we have because of this trial, would have been the same or very similar anywhere. Hopefully the inquiry can help change that. I am a billion percent pro safeguarding measures being rigorous and upheld.
cos there is zero evidence that care caused the babies to die or collapse. 
promise 
like I say it’s only a teeny bit and it might be retracted at any point. Terms and conditions apply. I don’t like disagreeing with you. Ok I hate them. 
xx
) but if somebody went into the best run ICU in the world (think shiny new machines, staff coming out their arses) and they worked nights and picked the right methods and moments… they could probably kill or cause “code red” type situations in a handful of people before it was spotted. It would probably always be 2+ people before it’s noticed. Just my opinion and not a nice thought. Hopefully I’m wrong eh 
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