Lucy Letby supporter claims neo-natal unit where baby serial killer worked was ‘not fit for purpose’

The Countess of Chester Hospital’s neo-natal unit was ‘not fit for purpose’ before Lucy Letby started murdering babies, a former nurse who worked there has claimed.

Michele Worden said redundancies led to a loss of senior staff and plumbing issues created a ‘perfect storm’ for care failings.

The former advanced nurse practitioner left the Countess after being made redundant in 2007, four years before Letby started working and eight years before her killing spree began.

She told the Nursing Times that when the unit was downgraded in around 2006 and stopped caring for very premature babies under 27 weeks, senior nurses were replaced with junior staff who were asked to care for infants ‘above their capabilities [and] training.’

She said: ‘It wasn’t just the neonatal unit that wasn’t fit for purpose, the whole maternity and paediatric and gynaecology… was not fit for purpose.

‘The problems with the sewage and blocked sinks were not just [on] the neonatal unit, it was on the labour ward, it was all over.’

Ms Worden said she believed the situation at the Countess of Chester was ‘no different’ to other NHS hospitals where maternity scandals have been uncovered in recent years.

‘Hopefully Lucy will be exonerated,’ she said. ‘Chester is no different than Shrewsbury, Nottingham, Morecambe Bay. Women and children’s healthcare has never been a high priority.’

Letby, 38, is serving 15 whole life sentences for the murder of seven babies and attempted murder of seven others

Mugshot: Letby was convicted following a 10-month trial at Manchester Crown Court

Letby supporters protested outside the public inquiry in Liverpool to campaign for her freedom

Michelle Worden worked at the Countess of Chester Hospital until she was made redundant in 2007

Letby, 38, is serving 15 whole life terms after being convicted of the murder of seven babies and attempted murder of seven more, including one baby girl she tried to kill twice.

Plumber Lorenzo Mansutti, estates manager at the Countess, was the only witness called by Letby in her defence at her Manchester Crown Court trial.

He admitted drainage problems were a ‘weekly’ issue at the hospital’s 50-year-old Women’s and Children’s Building and told the jury that he remembered an incident when raw sewage backed up into sinks in the intensive care nursery.

But he said it was a ‘one off’ and insisted that at no point were staff unable to wash their hands because the hospital had ‘backup’ portable handwashing units on site. The problem was not logged as a formal incident, so no exact date for the incident could be found.

Letby’s trial heard that none of the seven babies who died collapsed due to a bacterial infection associated with poor sewage.

Cheshire police are continuing to investigate the former nurse and last year confirmed they had questioned her in prison in connection with more baby deaths.

But, following a presentation from 14 international experts in February, who claim none of the babies were murdered but died due to poor care, there has been a continued chorus of people questioning the safety of her convictions.

Professor Neena Modi, barrister Mark McDonald, Sir David Davis MP and retired medic Dr Shoo Lee, during a press conference in February. They say a panel of 14 international experts found no babies were murdered and all died due to negligence or poor care at The Countess of Chester Hospital

In April Mark McDonald, Letby’s new defence barrister, submitted a dossier of new evidence to the Criminal Cases Review Commission in an attempt to have her convictions overturned

Lead prosecution expert Dr Dewi Evans has been subjected to intense trolling and criticism by Letby’s supporters

Cheshire police are continuing to investigate Letby’s entire nursing career and last year interviewed her in prison where she is serving 15 whole life terms

Letby has twice applied and been refused leave to appeal, but her new legal team have submitted a file of evidence to the Criminal Cases Review Commission, the body that investigates potential miscarriages of justice, in a last ditch attempt to get her convictions overturned.

They claim the testimony of lead prosecution expert Dewi Evans was biased and that he changed his mind over the method of murder of one of the children murdered by Letby, a boy known as Baby C. Dr Evans has denied this and the Court of Appeal has already dismissed claims he was not suitably qualified or lacked independence.

Yesterday it emerged that Dr Evans, who has been subjected to intense trolling online from Letby supporters, had been involved in an online row with one of them – an anonymous statistician who Dr Evans accused of being motivated by a sexual attraction to Letby.

According to the statistician, Dr Evans wrote: ‘You seem very intense, and it’s not unusual for men to have the hots for pretty young blonde females. A nursing uniform is a turn-on for some by all accounts.

‘I would suggest you need to get out more, find yourself an available pretty young blonde female, with/without nursing credentials. But one who doesn’t go to work intent on murdering her patients.’

The statistician said it was ‘absurd’ to say he believed Letby was innocent because she was ‘blonde and pretty’ and insisted he had come to that view after reviewing the transcripts of the trial.

A spokesman for the Countess said it was not appropriate to comment while the police investigation and public inquiry, which is due to report early next year, remained ongoing.