// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
Doctor regrets not going to police earlier about Lucy Letby
Dr Stephen Brearey said he began to associate Letby with unexplained deaths in 2015
A senior doctor who raised suspicions about Lucy Letby has said he should have gone to police sooner.
Dr Stephen Brearey was the lead neonatal consultant at the Countess of Chester Hospital when the nurse murdered seven babies and attempted to murder seven others.
In his first interview since the publication of the Thirlwall Inquiry report into what happened, Brearey reflected on the effect on staff and said he had "naively" assumed senior managers would respond to suspicions about the nurse's involvement in a series of baby deaths.
The inquiry found a "toxic negativity" within the NHS that continued to discourage staff from speaking out, despite stronger whistleblowing guidance, and said regulation was lacking.
Brearey claimed his warnings about Letby were repeatedly ignored by bosses at the hospital, which is now under new management - and also fears cultural change at the NHS will take time to implement.
"I was naively thinking that raising concerns with senior managers, they had the same values that I did and, once they got it, they would be thinking the same way," he said.
The doctor led a group of seven consultants who shared the same concerns about Letby.
Hospital bosses carried out a series of internal reviews into increased infant mortality in 2015 and 2016, but Cheshire Police was not asked to investigate until May 2017.
Letby remained employed at the hospital until her arrest more than a year later.