Dad of killer nurse Beverley Allitt victim wants red flag hospital alert system
The dad of one of killer nurse Beverley Allitt’s surviving victims is urging the Lucy Letby inquiry to introduce a “pattern spotting” warning system in hospitals. David Crampton, 68, whose son Paul was five months old when Allitt attacked him, fought for a public inquiry after she was sentenced to life in 1993.
The retired construction boss said:“In the Allitt case, the process wasn’t there to stop her becoming a multiple murderer and from what I’ve seen of the Letby case the process wasn’t there to stop her either. If there’s an unusual pattern of events happening in a hospital there needs to be swift action taken.
“You can’t stop a person intent on harming children from doing so, but you should be able to say ‘we only have these incidents once a year and now we have had two in one week, we need to do something’. Lives can be saved if you can put a process in place to swiftly raise a red flag if an unusual pattern of events takes place.
Killer nurse Beverley Allitt (Quest Rest/ British Police: Our Toughest Cases)“The NHS is something we need to treasure, support and protect. People like Allitt and Letby are very unusual but the harm and damage they do is incalculable. That’s why we need a process by which that pattern can be recognised and stopped.”
David, whose son Paul, now 30, made a full recovery and has enjoyed a successful career after obtaining a Master’s degree, believes hospitals would be able to quickly implement measures to save lives through such a system.
Teachers, civil servants and train drivers walk out in biggest strike in decade
David, who still lives near the hospital where Allitt tried to kill Paul, says: “When I gave evidence at the inquiry I said ‘let’s imagine Allitt was not involved in these crimes and these children were victims of an infection or faulty drugs.’ What it shows is the hospital’s inability to deal with a developing crisis. You had an unusual pattern of unexplained collapses of children over a 60 day period. And you had people on the ground who believed something was happening on the ward.
“But it didn’t seem we had a process that could escalate things, so that appropriate measures, such as closing the ward, could be taken.”
Allitt, then 24, was convicted of murdering four children, attempting to murder three others – including Paul, now 32 – and harming six more at Grantham and Kesteven Hospital, Lincs, in 1991.
How to get £15 off a Just Eat takeaway this weekend
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
