Colleagues of convicted ‘Killer Nurse’ Lucy Letby had to apologize for warning hospital about her: report

Colleagues of convicted “Killer Nurse” Lucy Letby were forced to apologize after repeatedly warning their UK hospital that she might have been behind several unexplained baby deaths.

Senior doctors sounded the alarm to Countess of Chester Hospital executives for months in 2015 that Letby was the only one on duty when a spate of premature babies suddenly collapsed and died in its neonatal unit, the Guardian reported Saturday.

But the 33-year-old was not removed until early July 2016 — a year later — and two physicians were told to apologize for flagging her, according to the outlet.

By that point, seven babies had been murdered, and Letby tried to kill another six. She was found guilty in the deaths of five boys and two girls between 2015 and 2016 on Friday, making her one of the UK’s worst serial killers.

Letby hurt or killed babies in her care by injecting air into their blood and stomachs, overfeeding them with milk, physically assaulting them and poisoning them with insulin, the court found.

The Countess of Chester Hospital NHS foundation trust is under fire for how it handled the Letby case.

Hospital officials finally ordered a review into the baby deaths in June 2016, a year after Letby’s murderous spree began. While her was removed from the unit the following month, cops weren’t called for another year, the Guardian reported.

After one senior doctor recommended that criminal investigators be alerted, an official said in July 2016 that contacting police would damage the facility’s reputation and cause the neonatal unit to become a crime scene, the outlet discovered.

Tony Chambers, then the hospital’s chief executive, forced the senior physicians to pen an apology letter to Letby over their repeated allegations in January 2017.

The apology was ordered after higher-ups, including Chambers, believed that two external reviews exonerated Letby, even though they were not set up to investigate who was responsible — and both suggested several infant deaths be probed further.

In January 2017, doctors learned that Letby’s parents had threatened to refer them to the General Medical Council after her ouster from the neonatal unit — and Chambers said she would return to the unit, the Guardian reported, citing documents.

A month later, grieving parents were told that the reviews into their babies’ deaths found no suspicious circumstances.

Letby, however, did not return to the neonatal unit, and police began their investigation into the deaths four months later.

She was arrested in July 2018 — and Chambers vacated his post weeks later.

Letby is expected to receive a mandatory life sentence.

After her conviction, Chambers called her actions “appalling.”

“The crimes that have been committed are appalling and I am deeply saddened by what has come to light,” he said according to the Guardian. “The trial, and the lengthy police investigation, have shown the complex nature of the issues raised. I will cooperate fully and openly with any post-trial inquiry.”