Bug scandal boss seeking advice

Rose Gibb said she would continue to abide by a confidentiality clause

The former boss of an NHS trust where 90 people died in a superbug scandal is taking more legal advice after losing her fight for a bigger severance deal.

Rose Gibb left her job days before a report into a clostridium difficile (C-diff) outbreak at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust.

A High Court judge ruled on Tuesday she was not entitled to a £250,000 payoff.

She said on Wednesday she now planned to take further advice from her lawyers and her management union.

The report by the Healthcare Commission concluded the C-diff infection was the main cause of death for the 90 patients.

The trust negotiated a £250,000 deal with Ms Gibb but withheld £175,000 after being told not to pay the full sum by the government.

NHS Trusts should not try to avoid holding senior managers to account by making payments

John Restell, Managers in Partnership

Ms Gibb claimed the NHS had "unjustly enriched itself" at her expense by failing to pay the compensation but Mr Justice Treacy ruled that the agreement was void.

Ms Gibb, of Sole Street, Cobham, was ordered to pay the trust's legal costs.

"This matter has obviously been difficult for all parties, and there can be no winners," she said in a statement.

"The whole event has been traumatic for all and highly damaging for the NHS.

"The judgment is long and complex and I'm going to take further advice from my lawyers and Managers in Partnership about the legal avenues now open to me."

She said she would continue to abide by the confidentiality agreement she had signed and asked that the NHS and Department of Health to afford her the same respect.

'Angered the public'

Chief executive of Managers in Partnership (MiP), said the case should never have happened.

"All it has done is anger the public and give more distress to the families of people who died avoidably in our care," he said.

"MiP supported this case because the union believed that Rose Gibb had a strong contractual claim for compensation agreed by her Trust in order to get her to resign voluntarily and quickly.

"Rose Gibb was very reluctant to agree to leave her job like this but she was told she had no choice.

"MiP is of the opinion that NHS Trusts should not try to avoid holding senior managers to account by making payments.

"The public and the service needs to find out from managers why things went wrong. Major failures of care happen again and again and we don't seem able to learn lessons."

The Trust has said that it welcomed the judgment, which was the "right decision".