Hospital chief accused of ignoring Letby red flags allegedly bragged about a new job offer after the killer was arrested
- Tony Chambers resigned two months after Lucy Letby was held for murder
A hospital chief accused of ignoring concerns about Lucy Letby allegedly boasted about being ‘persuaded’ to take up a £215,000 top job by an NHS England boss after the killer 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 held for murdering and attempting to murder babies.
The 57-year-old, who lives in a £750,000 Grade II-listed house in Bolton, Greater Manchester, was said to have been forced out after six years in charge following a vote of no confidence.
But the former nurse then took up 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 said to have bragged about being talked into taking up the £215,000 role – as CEO of Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS Trust in east London – by his ‘friend’ Sir David Sloman, the NHS regional director for London at the time.
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 held for murdering and attempting to murder babies. He is pictured alongside Camilla, then the Duchess of Cornwall, in 2014
In January 2020, while police were still investigating Lucy Letby, Tony Chambers is said to have bragged about being talked into taking up the £215,000 role – as CEO of Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS Trust in east London. Pictured: Lucy Letby in custody
In a now-deleted blog post, he said: ‘Having had a long and varied career in the NHS, I’ve made lots of friends, including Sir David Sloman.
‘He’s been trying to persuade me to come and work in London for a number of years and I saw this as an opportunity to do something different.’
NHS England is said to have had a representative on the interview 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 worked as interim CEO until January last year.
Months into Letby’s trial earlier this year, Mr Chambers was appointed interim CEO of Queen Victoria Hospital in West Sussex.
Mr Chambers started work at QVH in February but left his nine-month term earlier than expected in June. The BBC reported that all his appointments were approved by NHS England with a representative on each interview panel.
Letby was jailed for life this month for murdering seven babies and attempting to murder six others at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit.
Mr Chambers has come under fire after paediatric consultants said their warnings about the serial killer were ignored by bosses.
Months into Letby’s trial earlier this year, Mr Chambers was appointed interim CEO of Queen Victoria Hospital in West Sussex. Lucy Letby is pictured while working as a nurse at the Countess of Chester NHS Trust
NHS England insisted all interim CEO posts were made ‘through a competitive process run by the relevant trusts’.
It told the BBC that Mr Chambers had also been offered the job in London ‘following a competitive process’.
But it added: ‘Sir David Sloman was not aware of the events at the Countess of Chester when Tony Chambers was appointed.’
Mr Chambers has previously told the Mail that ‘serious concerns’ about Letby were not flagged to him until June 2016 – after the unexplained collapses of two babies.
He insisted he was ‘focused’ on working with the senior doctors and the hospital board of directors to establish what had happened ‘from the outset’.
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