Bug scandal NHS boss suing trust

Rose Gibb resigned ahead of the Healthcare Commission's report

The former chief executive of an NHS trust where 90 people died in a superbug scandal has begun legal action over the amount of her severance pay.

Rose Gibb resigned from Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS days before a damning report on the trust's handling of clostridium difficile outbreaks.

The trust took legal advice and agreed to pay her six months' pay, or �75,000.

On Monday, Ms Gibb said she had lodged papers in the High Court. The trust declined to comment.

A statement from Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS said: "This is now a legal matter and the trust is unable to comment further."

Ms Gibb said: "It is true that I have launched legal proceedings and have lodged papers in the High Court which are there for you to see."

The legal bid is to recover money said to have been agreed in a "compromise agreement" signed by her and the trust.

But Ms Gibb did not disclose the amount she hoped to recover.

When asked about newspaper reports that she was aiming to claim �250,000, she said: "I don't recognise the figures that you quote."

Someone has to carry the can for what happened Steve Stroud, relative

The Healthcare Commission report, published in October, concluded that C.diff - a bacterial infection of the gut 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.

In November, a month after Ms Gibb resigned, Health Secretary Alan Johnson halted her severance pay, while legal advice was sought.

The trust announced the six-months' pay severance deal in January.

But in February, her union, Managers in Partnership (MiP), said Ms Gibb was set to reject the �75,000 payoff and fight for more money.

Spokesman Jon Restell said MiP's lawyers had advised that Ms Gibb was entitled to the full sum originally agreed by the trust, which has never been disclosed.

The Healthcare Commission found countless examples of dirt

Steve Stroud, relative of 77-year-old C.diff victim Doreen Ford, said Ms Gibb should "walk away and count her blessings".

Mrs Ford - mother-in-law of ex-Bucks Fizz singer Cheryl Baker - died in October 2006.

She contracted the superbug after being given a blood transfusion at Maidstone Hospital.

Her stepson, Mr Stroud, of Sevenoaks, said: "Someone has to carry the can for what happened."

And he said any further money available to Ms Gibb should go to families that had suffered.

Geoff Martin, from campaign group Health Emergency, said news of Ms Gibb's legal action would demoralise staff at the trust.

He said: "I think the staff that were left behind to put the hospital trust back together from the wreckage will also be very angry."

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