Rose Gibb resigned ahead of the Healthcare Commission's report

Rose Gibb resigned days before Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust was criticised in a report on the outbreak of Clostridium difficile.

The trust said it took legal advice before deciding on the severance deal.

"Following that advice she will be paid only her legal entitlement of six months salary," the trust said.

Last year, Health Secretary Alan Johnson told the trust to withhold any severance pay and said the trust could be acting unlawfully in agreeing a cash package for Ms Gibb.

This is a kick in the teeth for the friends and relatives of those who died Geoff Martin, Health Emergency

A government spokeswoman said the Department of Health was aware of the trust's move, announced on Thursday, which followed legal advice.

But shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said: "All Alan Johnson's posturing about pay-off arrangements will offer no comfort to the patients and the families affected."

The Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust said its decision to pay Ms Gibb �75,000 had the support of the Department of Health and the strategic health authority.

A trust spokesman told BBC Radio Kent the pay-out was her six-month legal contractual entitlement.

The commission found countless examples of dirt

Geoff Martin, from campaign group Health Emergency, said: "This is a kick in the teeth for the friends and relatives of those who died in this hospital trust."

Kent Police and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) are still reviewing whether any prosecutions could be brought.

Ms Gibb, who quit her job days before a highly critical report was published, has not commented on the severance package.

The Healthcare Commission report last October concluded that C.diff - a bacterial infection which mainly affects the elderly - was definitely or probably the main cause of death for 90 patients.

It was definitely a contributing factor in the deaths of a further 124, and a probable factor in another 55.

Old dressings

The commission found a shortage of nurses meant wards and washing facilities were filthy, and patients were left to lie in their own excrement.

Quick and easy alcohol wipes, which do not kill C.diff, were used to clean toilets rather than soap and water, which does eliminate the bug.

The trust was the subject of an undercover investigation by BBC South East in May 2004 - months before the C.diff outbreaks.

It found evidence of blood stains ingrained on the floor, and clinical waste skips containing bags full of old dressings and bodily fluids left open in corridors used by visitors and patients.