July 2026: Government declines to widen the Thirlwall terms of reference (16 July) · new 100-page insulin report to the CCRC challenging the trial evidence (9 July) · Thirlwall report still expected no earlier than September · inquests relisted to 2027 · Shoo Lee Panel: no medical evidence of deliberate harm.
Conflict-map · Inquiry witnesses
Clinical lead, Cheshire and Merseyside neonatal network
Consultant neonatologist, qualified 1988 and a Fellow of the RCPCH from 1998. As clinical lead for the regional neonatal network he chaired its Clinical Effectiveness Group and sat on the Neonatal Steering Group. He gave evidence to the Thirlwall Inquiry on 20 November 2024 about what the network knew of the rise in deaths at the Countess of Chester and what it did about it.
The Clinical Effectiveness Group existed to learn from reviews rather than to monitor death rates, and the network did not treat mortality figures as a surveillance signal. In his witness statement he accepted that 'the overall role and performance of the locality network in relation to monitoring and oversight of neonatal mortality in 2015/16 could have been improved'.
Inquiry witnesses.