A second hospital has joined the probe into a nurse arrested on suspicion of the murder of eight babies and the attempted murder of another six.
The nurse, named by British media as 28-year-old Lucy Letby, was arrested on Tuesday in an investigation into the deaths of 15 babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital neonatal unit.
Liverpool Woman’s Hospital said in a statement on Wednesday that they are working with police and reviewing patients on their unit during the nurse’s placement at the hospital.
A Liverpool Women’s Trust representative said, “A healthcare worker currently involved in a police investigation undertook placements at Liverpool Women’s during their training.
We are co-operating with police as part of their investigation, which includes a routine review of patients cared for on our Neonatal Unit during the time of these placements. There is currently no suggestion that any patients at Liverpool Women’s came to any harm in relation to this investigation.”
The arrest is part of an ongoing investigation into deaths at the neonatal unit.
Detective Inspector Paul Hughes of Cheshire Police said, “This is a highly complex and very sensitive investigation and, as you can appreciate, we need to ensure we do everything we possibly can to try to establish in detail what has led to these baby deaths and collapses.”
He added, “This is an extremely difficult time for all the families and it is important to remember that, at the heart of this, there are a number of bereaved families seeking answers as to what happened to their children.”
In an interview with The Chester Standard in 2013 about her job, Letby said she qualified as a children’s nurse from the University of Chester in 2011 and cared for babies requiring various levels of support at the neonatal unit.
The probe into the baby deaths was launched in May 2017, initially investigating the deaths of 15 babies between June 2015 and June 2016. It has now widened to a total of 17 babies and 15 non-fatal collapses.
