A FORMER NHS Trust chairman says the probe into Lucy Letby needs to be swift – and that no detail can be covered up.
Roy Lilley also told GB News he believes the horrific case exposes the need for mandatory postmortem examinations of all premature baby deaths.
He said: “I can go through what I think has happened. The overarching role of senior managers as they see it is to protect the reputation of the organisation. The last thing they want is public grief like this, because they get the regulator’s crawling all over them.
“The CQC turns up, the regional apparatus turns up. So, they’ll want to kind of keep the lid on accusations now.
“What happens is a phenomenon in management called cognitive bias takes over. So, what has happened here is during the trial it was said Lucy was referred to as ‘nice Lucy’, she was popular.
“She didn’t have any pre-complaints about her behaviour. She was known to management and went on to work with management, everybody liked her.
“So, when the complaint, the initial complaint was made about her, the cognitive bias took over. And the management said: “No, it can’t be right. It’s nice. It’s nice, Lucy, and bear in mind that events like this are very, very rare. They’ve only been 16 in modern history globally. So, this is not something managers deal with every day. So cognitive bias takes over.
“Then, as more evidence accumulates, something called group think takes over. So that’s where managers would discuss this issue. And the people who’ve made the original decision have a cognitive bias. So, you get cognitive bias and groupthink, which is a very well-known phenomenon in management and bad decisions come from it. That’s what happened here.
“I’m not saying it’s right. I’m just saying that is my view of what has happened and what I would look out for, if I was still operation and still running an organisation.
“What happens next? Well, I’m pleased it’s not a public inquiry, because they take ages to organise, and speed is of the essence here.
“So, there’ll be plenty of people who want to give evidence, so I don’t think there’ll be any cover up. But I think what I want to come out of it is I think there needs to be changes. I mean, the NHS is full of regulations, red flags, and whistleblowing obligations to tell the truth.
“There’s all kinds of laws and regulations in the management structure, but they clearly don’t work.
“What we need I think two things. First, if two consultants come to management with a complaint of this nature, I think there should be an obligation on the organisation to conduct an inquiry, and that could be done by a neighbouring hospital. It doesn’t have to be a whole pallava to do it. But if two consultants say ‘Look, we’re concerned about this or that, if it’s a safety issue, then that could be dealt with very quickly. And lastly, I think there’s the issue of postmortem, and not all deaths are subject to postmortem. Hospitals can request it but if the family doesn’t want it, it’s really very difficult and it is very, very difficult in the case of young babies.
But I do now think there is a case for saying that all deaths of premature babies should be subject to postmortem.”
