Reg Howard

Operating Department Practitioner (ODP) and LMA passer. Socialist.

[Global Fishing Watch @GlobalFishWatch]

🌊 75 percent of industrial fishing vessels are not publicly tracked.

These blind spots make it harder to monitor activity at sea, detect suspicious behavior and combat illegal fishing.

Public vessel tracking can help strengthen transparency and ocean governance worldwide.

https://t.co/G0UAAEbY7M

[Jonathan @jabberwock951]

I really dislike the idea doctors should only deal with complex, difficult cases.

Apart from complexity only being known in hindsight, it's a recipe for burnout.

It's trying to turn medicine into a production line while ignoring the lessons learned from actual production lines.

[Dr Svilena Dimitrova @NeoDoc11]

So glad this is finally public so I can comment on it openly.

I have seen a fair number of HR investigations over the years. In my experience, whistleblowers are often formally investigated before they are pushed out, or as a way of “teaching a lesson” to anyone who challenges the status quo. This is actually one of the most competent internal investigation reports I have seen.

What surprised me most was the outcome. Usually, management plays an active role in managing out people who raise concerns - such as Lucy, who was clearly DATIXing poor standards and practices within the neonatal unit. Dr Brearey and Dr Jayaram were in management positions at the time and therefore carried responsibility for patient safety and culture within the department. So that would have been a pretty major motivator to want her out if she was shining the spotlight on their managerial/leadership failures.

Lucy Letby was never going to be safe returning to a workplace where she was clearly being bullied by a group of colleagues (most of whom were consultants and thus in a position of power over her) unless individual accountability followed. At the very least, that should have meant formal warnings, apologies to Lucy, and mediated discussions. Management could have supported her with a temporary redeployment to another clinical unit so she could continue practising while matters were resolved. Clinical work was clearly what Lucy wanted to continue doing. Some people in these situations , where redeployment is necessary during HR investigations, choose to remain in management or leadership roles instead, but that wasn't what Lucy wanted.

So in essence the hospital made a strong start with doing a competent HR investigation - but by failing to follow through properly, the situation escalated to the point where consultants went to the police.

What nobody seems willing to ask is this: if the consultants genuinely believed Lucy was murdering babies, why did they only go to the police after they were found to have bullied her? If you truly believed a nurse was a serial killer, is it reasonable to accept that a consultant would really think that internal Trust procedures were an appropriate way to deal with it?

UK trained consultants are NOT politically naïve. Consultant appointments are highly political positions, and consultants understand very well how NHS systems actually work. It stretches credibility, and that's a generous description, to claim the consultants genuinely believed reporting concerns over a serial killer internally was what they thought was the right thing to do. If they truly thought Letby was such a prolific killer, were they not concerned she might harm children outside work as well?

This entire case is a national disgrace, and I suspect it will remain in history as one of the most consequential modern witch hunts in British healthcare. Witch hunts within the NHS are unfortunately, however, very common - often carried out through internal employment procedures or GMC processes. But turning that common dynamic (whose root cause is toxic leadership practices) into the conviction of a serial killer is something else entirely.

An extraordinary outcome, enabled by a broken medical "expert" system and sealed by an inadequate police investigation and criminal justice system. What a world we live in.

I hope everyone involved in this MoJ - or anyone who knew what was happening and could have helped but chose not to - gets what they deserve.

@LucyLetbyTrials @drphilhammond @PrivateEyeNews @NadineDorries @ClarkeMicah @peter__duffy @MartynPitman @willcpowell @DavidDavisMP @DavidRoseUK @PeterElston1 @Michelehal7344 @Voice4theDead @reasonoverfear @Oversig58651516 @Seagreen2707 @RexvsLucyLetby

[Tory Fibs @ToryFibs]

Mexico announces that from 1st January 2027 it will introduce a new universal National Health System free at the point of use for all 130 million citizens.

[Owen Jones @owenjonesjourno]

If trans women use men’s toilets, they will be subjected to humiliation, abuse and violence.

Anyone with any sense knows this.

Which is why in practice trans women will not use men’s toilets, and will just increasingly be driven out of society.

[Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده @RamAbdu]

Jewish-American orthopedic surgeon Mark Perlmutter, who worked in Gaza, said Israeli soldiers took two Palestinian children, tied their hands behind their backs, and buried them alive at Nasser Hospital — their cries muffled by the dirt poured over them.

[The BMA @TheBMA]

The BMA remains concerned and calls on the Israeli government to immediately release all arbitrarily detained Palestinian healthcare workers, including Dr Hussam Abu Safiya.

With @AmnestyUK we have written to the foreign secretary demanding action to ensure that the Israeli government adheres to international law and medical neutrality.

https://t.co/UimLJpsvtG

[Richard Gill @gill1109]

Gill and Dimitrova in PROOF # 7, published by The Justice Gap - How to become a serial killer without killing anyone, revisited. First two of 8 pages. Do buy a copy of the whole number! https://t.co/8sajdPTlUm