Handling of hospital bug defended

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Health Secretary Alan Johnson responded to pressure from the Tories, who said the Government should have reacted to the report five months ago.

The Healthcare Commission officially published its study into Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust two weeks ago although an early draft was seen by the Government in May.

Appalling hygiene standards at Kent and Sussex Hospital, Pembury Hospital and Maidstone Hospital saw the bug Clostridium difficile directly linked to 90 deaths. The outbreaks contributed to a total of 345 deaths and more than 1,100 infections across a two-year period.

Mr Johnson has published his letter to shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley, which said the Healthcare Commission would have put the trust in special measures in May if it had not been satisfied that problems were being dealt with.

He also said the trust was challenging some of the points made in the draft report.

He wrote: "As you will know from the information you have received from the Healthcare Commission, the partial version of the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust report that was received by the Department of Health in May 'did not include conclusions or recommendations', indeed the Commission says that 'the trust was challenging both facts and, as a consequence, judgments based on those facts'.

"This does not mean that action was not being taken at that time and before by the Commission and the Strategic Health Authority to make sure the trust was in better control of infection prevention.

Mr Lansley wrote back to Mr Johnson, asking why he stepped in to suspend severance pay for Rose Gibb, the chief executive who left the trust by mutual agreement as the report was published.

Mr Johnson also accepted the resignation of chairman James Lee, despite the Strategic Health Authority rejecting his offer at the time of the report.