Hospital chief accused of ignoring Letby’s red flags alleged to have bragged about new job offer after killer arrested
- Tony Chambers resigned two months after Lucy Letby was held for murder
A hospital chief accused of ignoring concerns about Lucy Letby reportedly boasted he was ‘persuaded’ to take a top £215,000 job by a British NHS boss, after the murderous nurse was arrested.
Tony Chambers resigned from his £160,000 a year position at the Countess of Chester Hospital in Cheshire in September 2018, just two months after Letby was detained for murder and attempted murder of babies.
The 57-year-old, who lives in a £750,000 listed house in Bolton, Greater Manchester, is said to have left the charge after six years following a vote of no confidence.
But the former nurse went on to take a number of interim but lucrative NHS jobs, moving first to the Northern Care Alliance in Greater Manchester.
In January 2020, while police were still investigating Letby, he is reported to have boasted about being persuaded by his ‘friend’ Sir David Sloman to take on the £215,000 role – as CEO of Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS Trust in East London. , at the time the NHS regional director for London.
Tony Chambers resigned from his £160,000 a year position at the Countess of Chester Hospital in Cheshire in September 2018, just two months after Lucy Letby was detained for murder and attempted murder of babies. He is pictured alongside Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall at the time, in 2014
In January 2020, while police were still investigating Lucy Letby, Tony Chambers is reported to have bragged about being persuaded to take on the £215,000 role – as CEO of Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS Trust in East London London. Pictured: Lucy Letby in custody
In a now-deleted blog post, he said: ‘After a long and varied career in the NHS, I have made many friends, including Sir David Sloman.
‘He has been trying to persuade me to come and work in London for several years and I saw this as an opportunity to do something different.’
NHS England is said to have had a representative on the application panel for the job and a reference was provided by the Countess of Chester NHS Trust, according to the BBC.
Mr Chambers left the Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS Trust in August 2021 and joined the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust where he served as interim CEO until January last year.
Months after Letby’s trial earlier this year, Mr Chambers was appointed interim CEO of Queen Victoria Hospital in West Sussex.
Mr Chambers started at QVH in February but left his nine-month term earlier than expected in June. The BBC reported that all his appointments had been approved by NHS England, with a representative on each interview panel.
Letby was sentenced to life this month for the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of six others in the neonatal ward at Countess of Chester Hospital.
Chambers has come under fire after pediatricians said their warnings about the serial killer were being ignored by bosses.
Months after Letby’s trial earlier this year, Mr Chambers was appointed interim CEO of Queen Victoria Hospital in West Sussex. Lucy Letby is pictured working as a nurse at the Countess of Chester NHS Trust
NHS England stressed that all interim CEO posts were filled ‘through a competitive process led by the relevant trusts’.
It told the BBC that Mr Chambers had also been offered the London job ‘after a competitive process’.
But it added: ‘Sir David Sloman was unaware of the events at the Earless of Chester when Tony Chambers was appointed.’
Mr Chambers has previously told the Mail that he was only alerted to ‘serious concerns’ about Letby in June 2016 – following the unexplained collapse of two babies.
He insisted he was “focused” on working with senior doctors and the hospital’s board of directors to establish what had happened “from the start.”