Hospital bug deaths probe continues

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Health Secretary Alan Johnson ordered that severance payments to Rose Gibb be withheld after she stepped down as head of Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust.

The Clostridium difficile (C diff) bacterium was linked to 90 deaths at the Kent and Sussex Hospital, Pembury Hospital and Maidstone Hospital.

Mr Johnson said the circumstances leading to the deaths had been a "scandal", and added: "I have instructed the trust to withhold any severance payment to the former chief executive of Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, pending legal advice."

Ms Gibb left the trust by mutual arrangement after four years in post.

Annual accounts showed she earned around £150,000 in salary, £5,000 benefits and £12,500 in pension in 2006/07.

The C diff outbreaks at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust were the worst yet seen in the UK. The Healthcare Commission found a shortage of nurses meant wards and washing facilities were filthy, and patients were left to lie in their own excrement for hours.

The body's chief executive, Anna Walker, said the trust was so focused on meeting Government targets and dealing with high levels of debt that it failed to deal properly with the bug.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Kent Police are investigating whether to take action against the trust and Ms Gibb as an individual.

A spokeswoman for the HSE said action against individuals can only be taken if there is grounds to act against a corporation firstly under the Health and Safety at Work Act.