Context
Ian Harvey was Medical Director at the Countess of Chester from 2010 to 2018. His Thirlwall Inquiry evidence addresses his clinical-leadership decisions around Letby’s continued presence on the unit, the decision to commission the RCPCH review as a service-level review rather than an individual-case investigation, and the framing of the consultants’ concerns for much of 2016 as a dysfunctional-team matter.
Key passages
Ian Harvey
We framed it as a service review because the advice I was receiving from the RCPCH itself was that that was the appropriate scope. I accept that a wider remit would, in hindsight, have been of greater value.
Ian Harvey
I was conscious throughout of the need to balance patient-safety concerns against the potential harm to staff of a premature police referral in circumstances where the clinical picture was, in my view at the time, contested.
Counsel to the Inquiry
The consultants were telling you, repeatedly, that babies were dying unexpectedly on their watch. Do you accept, Dr Harvey, that you prioritised the reputational interests of the Trust over the patient-safety concerns that were being pressed upon you?
Ian Harvey
I do not accept that characterisation.
What to read alongside this
See our profile of Ian Harvey and the evidence of Dr Brearey and Tony Chambers.