Work.  

Family, friends, dog.

Threads. Life. 

Work.

A beautiful young man killed in an NHS hospital trust 10 years ago. A boy firmly placed in an outside ‘those who count’ zone across his lifetime.

A loose and disparate collective of largely white, entitled NHS/local authority execs and middle management meithering. Buck passing and blame with unchallenged self-importance, posturing, pettiness. Drawing on a well worn box of dirty tricks.

Connor got into the bath that morning knowing he was going to visit the Oxford Bus Company. A visit arranged by his teaching assistants come pallbearers.

I don’t know what he thought that morning. There’s no detail about what happened. No records. No ‘evidence’. No illicit notes taken home or bedroom photos with large soft toys.

The verdict in the Letby case has generated shock, revulsion. Horror. Devastated parents/families left to deal with the unspeakable. The unthinkable. Their futures immediately woven into a fabric of horror and disbelief.

And a similar grotesque stack of obfuscation and performative (non) action from layers of (some familiar) senior NHS and regulatory body figures.

‘We need to stop appointing crap people to NHS boards.’

‘We must change the toxic culture.’

We need to blah blah blah.

Billybullshite spouters who will continue to spout after the eventual publication of the possibly statutory public inquiry. Words that must slice through the families who didn’t know their beautiful babies were murdered. Before they could do any knowing. They, themselves catapulted into this space of dishonesty, self preservation, bullying and cruelty.

‘It’s like the Wild West’, said the wonderful Richard West who is working on our Witness to Harm project looking at the experiences of families who experience regulatory processes.

There is incredulity that the NHS famed for never saying sorry despite having a ‘Say sorry’ policy apologised to Letby and her parents. And gruelling familiarity as the then CEO wandered away from Chester to pick up other senior roles a week after her arrest. The rewards for mediocrity, ignorance and unwavering devotion just one red flag among many in this deeply flawed institution.

That never changes.

Work.

Family, friends, dog.

Threads. Life.

Repeat.