QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Mark McDonald, Letby’s barrister, said: “In my view, this isn’t just the Countess of Chester, or Nottingham – it’s endemic across the country. “We put the NHS on a pedestal, we keep wanting to talk about it being such a good thing, and how we’re so proud of it, but it’s not a good place and there is a broken system of care for neonates across the board. “The Nottingham findings don’t surprise me because it was the same at Stafford, at Bristol, at Shrewsbury, and we need to start looking at the real problems rather than trying to find scapegoats.”
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STORY: "NHS maternity scandal hospital ‘blow-by-blow’ repeat of Letby ward, says David Davis," by Science Editor Sarah Knapton, published by The Telegraph, on June 26, 2026." (Sarah Knapton is the Science Editor of The Telegraph and has covered all areas of science since 2013. She has previously been named Science Journalist of The Year, was Highly Commended at the Society of Editors Press Awards, and is known for her extensive coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic, and her investigative work on the Lucy Letby case. Sarah previously worked for the Guardian, Central News and The Evening Chronicle in Newcastle.)
SUB-HEADING: "Former Brexit secretary claims Nottingham findings suggest neonatal problems are ‘systemic.’
GIST: "Neonatal problems highlighted in the Nottingham hospitals inquiry are a “blow-by-blow” account of what went wrong in Lucy Letby’s hospital, it has been claimed.
Earlier this week, midwife Donna Ockenden released a reportoutlining the problems that led to stillbirths, neonatal deaths, brain injuries and maternal deaths within Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.
The review concluded that neonatal services were overstretched, with overcrowded wards, insufficient consultant cover, delays in blood transfusions and failures to properly intubate babies.
It warned that infants had been exposed to hospital-acquired infections from Pseudomonas in wards that lacked adequate isolation facilities, and found problems dealing with hypoglycaemia – low blood sugar – in infants, and a failure to seek senior help when needed.
All of the issues were present at the Countess of Chester in 2015 and 2016, when Letby was convicted of murdering babies.
Sir David Davis, the former Brexit secretary who has called for a retrial for Letby, said that the list of problems in Nottingham was a “blow-by-blow” account of what went wrong at Chester.
“It looks remarkably like what happened at the Countess of Chester,” he said.
“Everything from the Pseudomonas through to the lack of consultant cover, to very bad airway management, to the hypoglycaemia issue – it’s extraordinarily similar, which implies to me that this is systemic across more than two hospitals.
“It is so similar that this may be of wider concern, bearing in mind there have been numerous mortality spikes across the country in different neonatal units.”
The Letby jury did not see a report by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, which identified severe understaffing, gaps in medical and nursing rotas, and an inability to consistently provide longer-term, high-dependency or intensive care safely.
A review panel of international experts convened by Letby’s new defence barrister found efforts of medical staff were “chaotic”, often taking several attempts to intubate babies, and providing “sub-optimal care”.
In 2014, a baby died after doctors intubated him incorrectly.
Pseudomonas was also found in taps and nurseries between 2015 and 2016, and an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in February 2016 found the neonatal unit lacked resources required for strict infection control measures.
Letby, 35, from Hereford, is serving 15 whole-life orders for the murder of seven infants and attempted murder of seven others at the Countess of Chester between June 2015 and June 2016.
However, since her conviction, dozens of scientists, medics and statisticians have come forward to question how the evidence was presented to the jury.
New medical evidence has emerged questioning the testimonies of the prosecution experts, and the expert panel – which included the former head of the RCPCH – concluded that there had been no murders, only substandard care of premature and sick babies.
Mark McDonald, Letby’s barrister, said: “In my view, this isn’t just the Countess of Chester, or Nottingham – it’s endemic across the country.
“We put the NHS on a pedestal, we keep wanting to talk about it being such a good thing, and how we’re so proud of it, but it’s not a good place and there is a broken system of care for neonates across the board.
“The Nottingham findings don’t surprise me because it was the same at Stafford, at Bristol, at Shrewsbury, and we need to start looking at the real problems rather than trying to find scapegoats.”
On Thursday, Sir Alan Campbell, the Leader of the Commons, promised to raise the Letby case with ministers, saying it was a “serious matter” and admitting that there were concerns “on both sides of the House”.
It came after Jesse Norman, the shadow leader of the House, who is Letby’s parents’ MP, said he had growing concerns following the Nottingham findings and the intervention by Dame Sue Black, one of Britain’s top forensic scientists, who told The Telegraph she was concerned about the case.
“Nottingham University Hospitals’ report is a powerful reminder that in neonatal maternity settings grave harm can arise not only from individual malfeasance but also from systematic clinical failure,” he told the Commons.""
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/06/26/maternity-hospital-repeat-of-letby-ward/
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog. FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."Lawyer Radha Natarajan: Executive Director: New England Innocence Project; FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true;
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