Their fears over neonatal deaths were ignored .

Carmel Sparke DOCTORS who repeatedly raised the alarm about Britain ’ s worst serial child killer have revealed they were forced to apologise to the murderer .

One of the doctors , paediatrician Dr Ravi Jayaram , said they were initially threatened with “ consequences ” over their claims and had to agree to work with Lucy Letby and were told to apologise to her in person for making them .

The UK Government has now ordered an inquiry into why the concerns of senior doctors on the neonatal unit were not properly investigated .

Last week , Ms Letby was sentenced to life imprisonment with no prospect of release after being found guilty of seven counts of murder and six of attempted murder following a 10-month trial at Manchester Crown Court .

The trial heard how Ms Letby had tampered with nasogastric tubes and injected the premature newborns with insulin and oxygen and force-fed them milk .

In an interview with ITV News following the verdict , Dr Jayaram recalled the moment when they suspected they may have a killer on the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital .

It was June 2015 , and three premature but healthy babies had died in two weeks on the ward .

“ I ’ ve been a paediatrician since 1992 , and I have never in my career seen anything like this ,” Dr Jayaram said .

“ Initially , there was a feeling of ‘ Thank goodness Lucy ’ s on ’ because

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she was really good in a crisis . “ But as time progressed , the thought started springing into our heads . Could she be doing something deliberately ?

“ It ’ s a big moment , and it ’ s a

chilling moment . I don ’ t think anybody has a rule book for how you deal with a situation where you are suspecting that somebody is causing deliberate harm to babies on your neonatal unit .”

He and colleagues alerted hospital

executives , noting Ms Letby ’ s presence on the ward at the time of the deaths . No action was taken by the hospital management , and she remained on the unit for another year , committing further murders .

‘ There are people out there now who need to explain why they did not want to listen and do the right thing .’

She was only moved to clerical duties after two triplet boys died while under her care and another baby boy collapsed on three successive days in June 2016 .

But in January 2017 , after three internal reviews , hospital

management demanded the doctor agree to work with her again , apologise in a letter and in person , and draw a line under the incident or risk “ consequences ”.

Five months later , the police were finally contacted over the cases , almost two years after the first babies were murdered and days before Ms Letby was due to return to work in the unit .

In a Facebook post , Dr Jayaram said he and other doctors had been consumed by the case for eight years , and for families , nothing could ever undo the “ evil ” inflicted on their children .

“ There are people out there now , still earning six-figure sums of taxpayers ’ money or retired with their

Dr Ravi Jayaram ( left ), a consultant at the Countess of Chester Hospital ’ s neonatal unit , speaking to the media about the Lucy Letby ( below ) case .

gold-plated pensions , who need to stand up in public to explain why they did not want to listen and do the right thing , to acknowledge that their actions potentially facilitated a mass murderer and to apologise to the families involved in all of this ,” he wrote .

When he was asked whether he felt outcomes would have been different if the hospital had taken action sooner , Dr Jayaram said : “ It ’ s a horrible thing to say , but I do genuinely believe that there are four or five babies who could be going to school now , who aren ’ t .”

CHESHIRE CONSTABULARY

FROM PAGE 1 implicitly authorised overtime for junior doctors writing discharge summaries .

He said it had set a KPI that 80 % of discharge summaries were completed prior to discharge , and that its own witnesses in the case had acknowledged this would sometimes involve working after rostered hours .

During the hearing , lawyers for Peninsula Health had claimed that Dr Bolton did not work overtime because it was not shown on her time sheets .

This argument was dismissed by the judge as “ misguided ” due to an environment “ hostile to the making of claims ”.

Dr Bolton had told the court she was reluctant to seek approval from the department of medicine ’ s clinical director because other doctors told her that he “ had a reputation for being obstructive during phone calls and [ was ] often hard to get hold of ”.

Getting the director ’ s approval for overtime “ was not a simple phone call to make ”, she said .

“ You would be questioned as to why you needed the overtime , why these tasks were necessary , why couldn ’ t they be handed over , why couldn ’ t they be done in your rostered hours .”

In its defence , Peninsula Health pointed to its guidelines , which stated that only the “ clinical

Dr Gaby Bolton .

director or another member of senior medical staff and preferably a head of unit ” could authorise overtime .

But Justice Bromberg said all of the clinical staff called by Peninsula

Health as witnesses “ were either not aware of the policy or , if they were aware , had never applied the policy in the course of their work ”.

Peninsula Health ’ s lawyers also disputed Dr Bolton ’ s claims on how much overtime she worked , arguing that five minutes “ represented a reasonable period of time for the performance of the tasks in question ”.

But Justice Bromberg said the evidence was that “ in the ideal world ” these tasks could be done in five minutes .

This was “ substantially divorced from the world faced by Dr Bolton and demonstrated in her evidence ”.

Peninsula Health also argued that “ the work provided by Dr Bolton was … motivated by her desire to impress and advance her career ”.

But the judge dismissed this argument as well , saying she had actually

performed the work she was authorised to do .

Hayden Stephens , one of the lawyers representing Dr Bolton , said there were various options for the other junior doctors in the case .

He suggested the court could now consider running sample cases involving some of the other junior doctors who worked unpaid overtime across different departments .

“ Alternatively , courts sometimes entertain the idea of aggregate damages across the whole group or , dependent on the circumstances of the case , appointing a court referee process where individual assessments occur for each individual client ,” he added .

A spokesperson for the Victorian Department of Health said it was still considering the decision and could not make any further comment .