Lucy Letby: Hospital bosses ‘complicit’, inquiry told

The mother added: “It should start with the people at the top. They should listen to the consultants who work day in and day out on the wards and experience and know about the day-to-day running of the NHS.

“It shouldn’t be someone sitting in an office making decisions.”

Child N’s father added it “felt like such a kick in the teeth” that concerns raised by clinicians with management in 2015 were not taken seriously.

These were “missed opportunities to take action that could protect the children who were harmed or killed after these concerns had been raised, like installing CCTV.”

He added he believed monitoring would protect babies, but also staff from allegations of harm if they were unfounded.

The parents of twins Child L and M, whom Letby attempted to murder in April 2016, also criticised hospital management.

Letby poisoned Child L with insulin and injected air into Child M’s bloodstream.

Their statement said if management “had listened sooner, fewer babies would have died or been harmed”.

The statement added: “Fewer families would have been bereaved and damaged. It’s not enough to just say sorry to the families now.”

Letby was removed from the unit in July 2016 and put in a role that did not involve working with patients.

But she worked at the hospital until her first arrest in July 2018.

She is serving 15 whole-life orders after her conviction at Manchester Crown Court of murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven others.

The inquiry is expected to sit until early next year, with findings published by late autumn 2025