Context
Helene Donnelly OBE is one of the UK’s most prominent NHS whistleblowers. She was a nurse at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust in the years leading up to the Francis Inquiry, where she raised sustained patient-safety concerns about the trust’s handling of care. Her experience — of what NHS trusts do, in practice, to staff who raise concerns — is a rare directly-comparable body of evidence. The Thirlwall Inquiry called her on 4 December 2024 for that reason.
Key passages
Why this matters
Ms Donnelly’s evidence is not evidence of what Ms Letby did or did not do clinically. It is evidence of the institutional dynamic the consultants who raised the alarm were operating inside — and which, on any view, delayed their escalation reaching the police by almost a year.
Read alongside
Dr Brearey’s Thirlwall evidence, Tony Chambers’ Thirlwall evidence, all Officials profiles.