The mother of twins attacked by Lucy Letby at the Countess of Chester Hospital has called for a psychological screening process to assess the mental state of staff treating vulnerable patients.

The Thirlwall Inquiry has been hearing evidence this week at Liverpool Town Hall into how former neonatal unit nurse Letby was able to commit her crimes at the hospital in 2015 and 2016, and the delays in reporting events to the police.

Child A and Child B were the first victims of Letby, who injected air into their bloodstreams in June 2015. Child A died but Child B survived.

Giving evidence on Monday, the mother said: “If there was an assessment done, or if counselling was mandatory, whoever was talking to these staff might have seen some red flags.

“Something might have shown up in a discussion with these people, or in an evaluation, that might have needed more monitoring or maybe further assessment.”

Counsel to the inquiry Rachel Langdale KC asked: “You remember from the criminal trial learning that Letby had texted her friends stating that Father A & B had collapsed to the floor when she had taken Child A for the post-mortem. Was that true, had that had happened?”

The mother replied: “No, it’s not true. And this is why my point about psychological evaluation is very valid. That’s not normal.

“There was several text messages that came out through the trial that were lies and it was, to me, it was attention seeking. I think that should have really been a red flag. And if somebody had been checking in with her and assessing her, maybe that would have come up sooner.”

The inquiry heard the parents of Child A and B had written to the Countess of Chester Hospital in January 2016 about concerns they had over the care for Child A. The mother said they had written the letter as they were "trying to get some answers as to what had led for, in one of the nurse's own words, a perfectly well pre-term baby to suddenly die."

The inquiry also heard an inquest took place in October 2016 into Child A’s death but the concerns that consultants had already voiced about Letby were not raised to the coroner.

Child A and B’s mother said: “At the inquest we had no idea, and from the trial we know that by that time they did suspect her but nobody mentioned it. Not once, and they should have.”

The mother added that the hospital, generally, did not see her and her children as people, but "just a patient".

She said: "Some of the parents on the neonatal unit probably had a great experience, but I didn't.

"And there was never any thought given, when I walked through them doors every day, that I had lost a child on that unit.

"And I just think, instead of treating me as this hysterical woman, put yourself in my shoes. How you would feel if you had to walk into the place every day where your child died? It was really hard.

"I need you to know that Child B and Child A are people. They're the most important people in my life. And I just think that that is something that's been overlooked through this whole process, in the press, in the trial.

"It just feels like we have been given no power throughout this whole process, throughout all this time.

"This inquiry is finally the chance that we are listened to, and we can give our side of things.

"My side of it is: I am a person, and they are my babies, and I've lost one of them, and I very nearly lost one of the others. And that's what needs to be at the focus of everything, not Lucy Letby.

"Why is anybody talking or thinking about her? We're human beings, and that's how we should have always been treated."

Lady Justice Thirlwall, chairing the inquiry, said to the mother at the conclusion of evidence: "I'd like you to know is that your evidence today is amongst the most powerful I have ever heard.

"The expression you used was: 'They should have put themselves in our shoes'. And that obviously is an insightful observation and one which I thought I would consider as people explain to me in due course how they behaved at various stages."

Letby, 34, from Hereford, is serving 15 whole-life orders after she was convicted at Manchester Crown Court of murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven others, with two attempts on one of her victims.

The inquiry is expected to sit until early 2025, with findings published by late autumn of that year.