The consultant, Dr MN, is a former colleague of Letby in the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital and gave evidence at her first criminal trial. Letby was convicted in 2024 of the murder of seven babies and attempted murder of seven more. Dr MN moved to a new hospital, where he arranged several supervised observership visits to the neonatal unit for Letby. He subsequently informed his deputy chief medical officer about his involvement with the Letby trial and the supervised visits. The deputy chief wrote a draft letter expressing confidence in Dr MN.
However, the mother of one of the babies Letby was convicted of attempting to murder, which was transferred to Dr MN’s new hospital, complained to the trust. She alleged Dr MN broke patient confidentiality by sharing information about her son’s condition with Letby. The trust told Dr MN it wanted to investigate and appointed its director of corporate affairs rather than the medical director to manage the investigation.
Dr MN argued the trust should not have delegated management of the investigation since their decision could lead to career loss or damage to prospects and reputation.
Ruling in Dr MN v NHS Foundation Trust L [2026] EWCA Civ 71 last week, Lords Justice Singh, Newey and Nugee held the ‘purported delegation’ was ‘in breach’ of Dr MN’s contract. Singh LJ said: ‘I agree with the judge that, where necessary, there is an implied term... that the medical director may delegate the task of case manager to another person but this will be for reasons such as a conflict of interest or illness, which are not present in this case.’
Letby’s convictions are currently under review by the Criminal Cases Review Commission.
