Letters: A statutory inquiry is needed to address the failures of NHS management in the Lucy Letby case

SIR – Given the number of murders and attempted murders in the Lucy Letby case, the inquiry ordered by the Government (report, August 20) should be a statutory one. 

Management in this case clearly failed. The inquiry must give guidance as to when management should start an independent investigation and/or make a report to the police following abnormal incidents such as above-average deaths, operation failures or infections. The inquiry should advise whether its guidance should be enacted into law.

Peter Goldberger
Leeds, West Yorkshire

SIR – Why didn’t reforms after the murders committed by Harold Shipman catch Lucy Letby?

Dame Janet Smith’s Shipman Inquiry made two recommendations: one was medical revalidation – for doctors only; the other, which should have caught Lucy Letby, has still not been fully implemented. 

Dame Janet proposed a medical examiner system to scrutinise independently every death not investigated by a coroner – including baby deaths. 

The necessary legislation was passed in the Coroners and Justice Act 2009. Most thought that the Shipman reforms had been implemented, but in fact implementation relied on the health secretary (Jeremy Hunt between 2012 and 2018) setting a start date. He never did.

To its credit, NHS England has recently implemented medical examiners in most hospitals, but 14 years after the 2009 Act was passed its powers have still not been used. The system remains non-statutory.

NHS managers who should have acted sooner are rightly being pilloried. But what about the politicians and civil servants whose inaction allowed more babies to die?

Professor Peter Furness
Retired consultant pathologist
Whissendine, Rutland

SIR – As the owner of a small private nursing home, I give all staff a session on whistleblowing and how to raise a concern with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) if they feel managers (including nurses) do not handle complaints effectively. Indeed, any such complaints are rightly acted upon quickly. 

I cannot comprehend how NHS managers with far more resources than we have are unable to follow a similar process, and how the CQC failed to identify cause for concern in its inspections of the Countess of Chester Hospital, where Lucy Letby worked.

Isabelle Kenny
Bampton, Devon

SIR – During my last year in the NHS, I raised concerns about the avoidable deaths of two patients, and other instances of suboptimal care, only to be told by the deputy chief nurse that it could be brushed under the carpet. I escalated it, and so had in effect blown the whistle to protect other patients. I had no support from managers, even though the trust policy stated that “anyone who raises concerns should be protected and supported”.

I decided to leave the NHS after 27 years as a registered adult nurse. I hope other NHS staff are able to be strong enough and not feel intimidated by senior management when raising concerns. But I wonder if managers will ever actually listen to staff who are on the shop floor.

Mary Moore
London E2

SIR – Since Tony Blair and Gordon Brown drowned the NHS with management and bureaucracy, a major complaint of NHS medics is that “the only people who listen to us are the patients”. That the Lucy Letby tragedy should bring into focus the difference between the old NHS – where doctors were listened to – and now may yet lead to the reform that the NHS needs.

Dr Rod Storring
Saffron Walden, Essex
 

Pride in the Lionesses

SIR – Though their ultimate goal eluded them, our Lionesses have performed with spirit and skill throughout the Women’s World Cup, giving us all much enjoyment. 

We’re so proud of you, Lionesses; thank you very much.

N Perry
Lincoln

SIR – Despite the result, the Women’s World Cup final was one of the most entertaining games of football I’ve seen since my grandfather first took me to Filbert Street 60 years ago.

Justin Tahany
Reading, Berkshire

SIR – It was gratifying to hear the England coach Serena Wiegman paying due credit to the Spanish for their win in a post-match interview. 

All too often we hear nothing but excuses when, as a nation, we’ve failed to live up to expectations.

Andrew Segal
Hampton, Middlesex

SIR – As our marvellous women’s team stepped out at Stadium Australia for England’s first World Cup final since 1966, not one member of the Royal family was there to support them. Now that’s what you call an own goal.

Mark Macauley
Heytesbury, Wiltshire

SIR – In criticising the Prince of Wales for not attending the World Cup final, Gabby Logan (report, August 20) says: “I don’t know... if there’s something that’s enormously important that is getting in the way of this...” 

Since the World Cup began on July 20 hundreds of people across the globe have lost their lives to fires caused by global warming. The Prince is to be congratulated for setting an example – that sending a message is better than jumping on the first long-haul flight.

Peter Baynes
London W1

SIR – If England fans stopped arrogantly singing “it’s coming home”, it just might.

John Clark
Hereford

SIR – The Lionesses should not be downhearted, as their legacy is young players entering the game on the back of all their achievements.

Molly chooses to play in my nine-year-old grandson’s team and runs rings around the opposition, to the point where the team’s rules are: one, pass it to Molly, and two, see rule one. 

She is well on the way to becoming a Lioness.

Alan Belk
Leatherhead, Surrey
 

Ulez expansion

SIR – My husband and I have been told that from August 29 we must pay £12.50 each time we wish to visit our son and his family (report, August 20). 

We have a 13-year-old diesel estate car that runs perfectly well and that we have no wish to change. It’s practical, particularly for my husband, who, though in his late 70s, is very keen on DIY. It happily carries bags of cement, fertiliser and lengths of timber.

To visit our son it’s an easy 45-minute drive, mainly via country lanes, but Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, thinks we should be using public transport. It would be achievable by train, Tube and with a fair bit of walking, but the fare for one person, one way, would be at least £20, making a round-trip total of £80. So, thanks to his edict, we will limit visits to our family to as few as possible.

I understand that the Government has the power to stop Ulez expansion but chooses not to do so. Yet another reason – despite being a lifelong Tory – to consider carefully who to vote for in the next election.

Sue Templeman
Chelmsford, Essex

SIR – A new study has shown that a prawn mayo sandwich leaves a carbon footprint equivalent to a car journey from London to Brighton. Can we expect the Mayor of London to ban the sale of this favourite in the Ulez area?

Michael Johnston
Oxted, Surrey
 

Avocado alternative

SIR – I read with interest Roland White’s article (Features, August 19) on cartel-free avocados. 

A restaurant in York, the Pig and Pastry, has taken them off its menu and makes a pea guacamole instead. It is delicious and clearly more sustainable, both in cost and environmentally. More restaurants should take note.

Dex Dexter
York

SIR – In 1980 my husband was captain of a submarine that paid a visit to Manchester via the Manchester Ship Canal. I accompanied him to a formal dinner in Salford Town Hall. As the starter arrived, I was pleased to see that it was half an avocado dressed with a few prawns – a real treat in those days. An elderly gentleman next to me asked his wife what it was. “I think they call it an avocado pear,” she said. “I’m not eating that,” he replied. 

As we left, to my dismay I saw a mountain of discarded avocados. How our tastes have changed in 40 years.

Shelagh Parry
Farnham, Surrey
 

Time for collaboration on missing bronzes

SIR – Recovering stolen art is harder when museums fail to report their losses (“Stolen British Museum items on eBay for £40”, report, August 18). Those seeking to restitute Benin bronzes forget that Nigeria already has extensive collections of its own – or should have – with most of the pieces having been presented by Britain’s Colonial Office at independence in 1960.

Publication of the Digital Benin database last November revealed that many of those works are missing today. In 2019 you published my letter describing the looting I’d uncovered at Benin Museum in 1978, and in 2021 New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art returned three important bronzes that had been stolen from Lagos Museum and found their way into the art market. They appear to have vanished again.

The Windsor Castle Oba was looted from Lagos Museum by President Gowon and presented to Queen Elizabeth II in 1973, though for decades it was described as a facsimile and not the priceless original. An unknown number of other thefts have gone unreported and many known robberies were never investigated, though photographs and descriptions exist.

Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments, and the Oba of Benin, should declare what they can produce today, deduce from old inventories what can only have been looted by Nigerians in the years since 1960, and then enlist the art world’s help to find missing bronzes. There is no need for the world’s museums to be stripped of African artworks that they have housed safely for more than a century.

Mike Wells
Ickwell, Bedfordshire
 

Driven to despair by HMRC and Royal Mail

SIR – Like Geoff Yates (Letters, July 19), I sent my tax return to HMRC in July, paying for signed-for delivery, and four weeks later it has still not been delivered. I wonder how Mr Yates managed to get an explanation from Royal Mail. I have tried and failed to get through its byzantine automated telephone system (and that of HMRC), and despair of these flawed alternatives to a human. Bring back the call centres in Bangalore, I say.

Brendan Mulcahy
Shrewsbury

SIR – I have suffered the same problem of Royal Mail failing to track and deliver a “tracked” application for power of attorney. Royal Mail confirmed that it had not been delivered, so I contacted the Office of the Public Guardian, which confirmed that it had received my application, despite it not being signed for.

It may be wise to contact the intended recipient to see if the letter has arrived.

Robert Hood-Wright
Bodmin, Cornwall
 

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