A former nursing chief who was accused of refusing to remove Lucy Letby from a neonatal unit despite staff concerns has said she was unable to because she “needed more information”.
Karen Rees had been the head of nursing at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s urgent care division before retiring in March 2018.
Her role included overseeing the neonatal unit where Letby murdered seven babies and attempted to murder six others between June 2015 and June 2016.
During Letby’s trial at Manchester Crown Court, the jury were told how the neonatal nurse tried to kill a baby by injecting him with air during a day shift on Saturday 25 June 2016.
Senior paediatrician Dr Stephen Brearey told the court that the day before that incident he told Ms Rees that he and his colleagues were “not happy” with Letby because of the number of baby deaths and collapses during her shifts.
Ms Rees has now released a statement saying she wasn’t given enough information to justify removing Letby from her duties.
The former nursing chief says Karen Townsend, the director of urgent care at the hospital, and Ravi Jayaram, a consultant who was the clinical lead for neonates and paediatrics, told her during a general review meeting that there were concerns about Letby’s clinical practices.
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Ms Rees says she was told at this stage that senior paediatrician Dr Stephen Brearey thought Letby should be removed from the neonatal unit.
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The retired nursing chief says in her statement: “I immediately went to find Ravi Jayaram and Stephen Brearey in order to obtain more information about the allegations that had been made. I went straightaway as it was a Friday afternoon, and I was conscious that staff would be going home for the weekend. I wanted to find out what the concerns were.”
She adds that she went to the office the two men shared but Dr Brearey wasn’t there.
Ms Rees continues: “Ravi wouldn’t give me any information to explain why Lucy Letby should be removed from the unit. He said nothing about air embolus, or over-feeding. He did not even mention babies dying and Lucy Letby being present. He just asked for Lucy Letby to be removed from the NNU (neo-natal unit).”
Ms Rees says she felt she “urgently” needed to speak with Mr Brearey about concerns around Letby.
She added that after she got hold of him, she explained to the senior paediatrician that she needed more information before she could remove a nurse from the neo-natal unit.
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Ms Rees says in her statement: “Stephen Brearey was measured throughout… I said that if there were issues, then I needed to know what they were.
“Despite that, he refused to give me any more information. He said that he had evidence, but he refused to show it to me.”
Ms Rees says she still doesn’t understand why Dr Brearey wouldn’t provide her with more information.
“At no point did he say that he suspected she had been purposely harming babies. If he had said that there had been 16 deaths, and that she was present for all of them, then my actions may well have differed.
“If Stephen Brearey had given me whatever evidence he said he had, that may have meant that a further death could potentially have been prevented,” she adds in her statement.
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It has also been claimed Dr Brearey had asked Ms Rees if she would be happy if “something happened to any of the babies tomorrow?”.
The retired nursing chief is alleged to have said “yes”.
Ms Rees says in her statement that the claim is “completely untrue” and an “outrageous allegation to make”.
She adds that she is “currently taking legal advice about the untrue allegations”.
What did Dr Brearey claim in court?
Ms Rees’ statement directly contradicts the allegations made by Dr Brearey, who said during Letby’s trial: “She (Ms Rees) was familiar with our concerns already. I explained what had happened and I didn’t want nurse Letby to come back to work the following day or until this was all investigated properly.
“Karen Rees said ‘no’ to that and that there was no evidence.
“I put it to her – was she happy to take responsibility for this decision, in view of the fact that myself and my consultant colleagues all wouldn’t be happy with nurse Letby going to work the following day?
“She responded she was happy to take that responsibility.”
Sky News has contacted Dr Brearey and Mr Jayaram for comment.
