Former Home Secretary Priti Patel says ‘serious questions’ have to be asked of the NHS after nurse Lucy Letby was found guilty of murdering seven babies.
Speaking to GB News, Ms Patel said: “This is a deeply, deeply, horrible, appalling, abhorrent and traumatic case for those families that have lost their babies. It is a horrible case. The one thing I would add though, is that the government has in recent years changed our laws for individuals that are effectively deemed to have been involved in murdering children and harming children. And it’s important that we see those laws put into practice by the courts when it comes to sentencing. So we can’t prejudge anything right now. My sympathies are so much with those families. I mean, there are no words really, for what they have endured, the trauma and the heartbreak and I really think we need now to let this follow the full judicial process.
“I’m a member of parliament in mid-Essex. And you know, all MPs represent their constituents when it comes to the NHS, but sadly and I say this with a very heavy heart, a lot of the complaints that come to us are literally complaints about either access or services, and their own personal experiences.
“It’s heartbreaking, it is absolutely heartbreaking because they want to know the truth. What happened, why did things go wrong? I have no doubt my colleague, the Secretary of State for Health will be following this with a great deal of interest. There’ll be all sorts of questions regarding the NHS Trust itself, the governance, what procedures did they follow? And effectively, what lessons will be learned because lessons will have to be learned out of this? And personally, I think there has to be greater calls for transparency within large organisations and institutions such as the NHS.”
