NHS rehires health chief who presided over superbug scandal that killed 33 patients

Ruth Harrison was given a £140,000 "golden goodbye" to leave a hospital trust where 33 died amid shocking hygiene standards.

Now she is being paid £52,000 as a consultant to Epsom and St Helier Hospital in Surrey and local primary care trusts. Health bosses have asked Ms Harrison to lead a review into children and maternity services that could see wards closed.

Campaigners demanded to know how a manager who left Stoke Mandeville Hospital with "soaring infection rates" can still be paid by the NHS.

She left Buckinghamshire Hospitals NHS trust in 2006 one day before a damning report cited serious faults in its leadership.

The health watchdog highlighted appalling hygiene standards including dirty wards, faeces on bedrails and soiled commodes. It accused managers of "significant failings" after they compromised patient safety by failing to listen to their own experts.

Between October 2003 and June 2005, when Ms Harrison was leading the trust, at least 33 patients died from the stomach bug Clostridium difficile and 334 became seriously ill.

Healthcare Commission inspectors later wrote: "(We) consider there were significant failings on the part of the leadership at the trust and have recommended that the leadership change."

Yet less than two years later Ms Harrison's management consultancy Durrow has been asked to lead a shake-up of hospital services in Surrey.

Chris Grayling, Epsom's MP and a hospital campaigner, said: "At the very least this is a highly insensitive appointment."

A spokesman for the Patients' Association said: "Ms Harrison left Stoke Mandeville at a time when infection rates were so high that it led to avoidable deaths. She then got a huge payoff and a year to enjoy it.

"Now we hear she is back again advising the NHS on best practice. It absolutely beggars belief."

The move by Surrey health bosses comes amid a mounting row over pay-offs in the health service.

Health bosses defended Ms Harrison's appointment. Simon Morgan, a spokesman for the Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust, said: "Following a competitive tendering process, specialist health management consultancy Durrow has been hired to manage a review of women's and children's services at Epsom and St Helier Hospitals."

The practice of cash pay-offs to failing NHS managers led to a public outcry last year over the case of Rose Gibb, the chief executive of Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust in Kent.

She left her job in October when a Healthcare Commission report criticised her handling of the C.diff infection which hit 1,176 people in three hospitals between 2004 and 2006. At least 90 patients died as a direct result of C.diff and hundreds more were infected between 2004 and 2006 as nurses urged some patients to "go in their beds."

Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, attempted to block a large payout although Miss Gibb was awarded £75,000. However Ms Gibb is still seeking £150,000. She has since set up a consultancy with her partner, Mark Rees selling advice to the NHS.