Outrage at award of £190K damages to Rose Gibb, CEO of NHS hospital where 90 patients died during superbug outbreak in overcrowded, dirty wards.

See BBC News report. In my opinion, this woman should have received a prison sentence, rather than a huge payout.

The hospital trust at the centre of Britain's worst recorded hospital superbug outbreak which led to the death of 331 patients has escaped prosecution

Superbug hospital escapes criminal charges
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Clostridium difficile contributed to the deaths of the patients over two-and-a-half years at three Kent hospitals a health watchdog report found.

Appalling standards of care, crowded wards, financial problems, a shortage of nurses and poor hygiene all led to the outbreak the Healthcare Commission found in a highly critical report in October.

However after studying that report, Kent Police and the Health and Safety Executive said there would be no charges over the deaths at hospitals run by the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Hospital Trust.

Assistant Chief Constable Allyn Thomas said: "Whilst the report makes for grim and at times distressing reading, our review has not identified any information that would indicate a need or duty to conduct a criminal investigation into the Trust at this time."

Relatives of those who died in the outbreak reacted angrily to the announcement.

Steve Stroud, whose 77-year-old stepmother Doreen Ford died in Maidstone Hospital said he was "disgusted" by the decision.

Mr Stroud, husband of former Bucks Fizz singer Cheryl Baker, said: "This is disgusting. Someone has got to be held to account over all these deaths and if it is not the hospital trust, then who the hell can it be?

"Someone really should have to carry the can over this... for no charges to be pressed is really disgusting. I can't believe it".

Baker, described the death of her mother-in-law as "legalised killing".

She said: "The Trust is to blame, I know that, everyone knows it and it makes my blood boil.

"Those patients didn't die by chance, they died because they contracted C diff at the Trust because of poor hygiene and care, so they are to blame, without a shadow of a doubt."

The Healthcare Commission had found the infection probably or definitely killed 90 people and was a factor in a further 241 deaths.

It also criticised the then chief executive of the trust, Rose Gibb, who left before the findings were published and is now reported to be fighting for a payout of several hundred thousand pounds.

But police said the report held no evidence that the deaths amounted to manslaughter."

Beggars belief, doesn't it?- All those deaths. All that suffering. All that sadness. - No-one held to account...

Without accountability there is less likelihood of improvement...

Single rooms with ensuite bathrooms are planned for 512-bed hospital that will replace 1 of the 3 hospitals run by Maidstone and Tunbridge NHS Trust.

All rooms to be singles at new £228m hospital

Extract from Guardian article:

"The NHS trust at the centre of a Clostridium difficile infection scandal is to build a £228m hospital where every patient will have a separate room with an ensuite bathroom.

The health secretary, Alan Johnson, said yesterday that work would begin early next year on a 512-bed hospital in Pembury, Kent. It will replace one of the three hospitals run by Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS trust, where 90 patients were killed by C difficile bacteria during two outbreaks in 2005 and 2006. In a report last month, the Healthcare Commission blamed poor management for failing to instil better hygiene on the wards.

Mr Johnson said the new hospital, built by a consortium led by John Laing, would be the first in England to provide every patient with a single room, offering better isolation of people with infections. He allocated £350,000 for deep-cleaning the trust's hospitals on top of the £720,000 budget it had already received this year for eliminating infection in particular wards."

A good move surely.

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The Department of Health ignored damning report into an outbreak of Clostridium difficile at a hospital trust in Kent more than five months ago...

Government ignored deadly hospital bug report

Extract from Telegraph account:

"The Department of Health knew of a damning report into an outbreak of Clostridium difficile at a hospital trust in Kent more than five months ago and failed to act, it was claimed last night.

A draft copy of the Healthcare Commission report was first received by the health department on May 3, yet ministers only intervened when the document became public in October, the Tories said.

They are now demanding to know why the Government failed to act immediately on the report, which found that the outbreak had "probably or definitely" killed at least 90 people at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust hospitals.

Drafts, requiring factual accuracy checks on figures, were sent to health officials in May and September. But Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, told Parliament that he only received the report on Oct 9."

Superbug hospital chairman, James Lee, has resigned.

Superbug hospital chairman steps down - Telegraph

Extract:

"The chairman of the NHS trust at the centre of Britain's biggest superbug outbreak has resigned following pressure over the decision to award the trust's chief executive a £250,000 pay-off.

James Lee resigned from the board of the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Hospitals NHS Trust in Kent following an outbreak of Clostridium difficile which claimed up to 90 lives.

Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, announced the resignation to the House of Commons, apologising for the "truly scandalous" outbreak.

Mr Lee was last week ordered to attend a meeting with local MPs to explain why Rose Gibb was given the severance deal just days before the extent of the trust's failures to prevent the spread of clostridium difficile was revealed in a damning report.

Mr Johnson stepped in to block the payment to Miss Gibb, who left her post as head of Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust by "mutual agreement" at the end of last week.

It unclear whether Mr Johnson has the legal power to prevent Miss Gibb being paid the money, and the matter now seems likely to end up in court.

MPs and health campaigners have expressed their disgust over the trust board's decision to award Miss Gibb the money in the first place."

NHS superbug board should have been sacked, say Tories - Guardian reports today

NHS superbug board should have been sacked, say Tories - Guardian

Extract:

"Government ministers were last night accused of aggravating the NHS superbug scandal by failing to take charge of the hospitals where 90 people died as soon as the scale of mismanagement became clear.

Andrew Lansley, the Conservative shadow health secretary, last night said the three hospitals of the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS trust should have been brought under direct departmental control.

In a report on Thursday, the Healthcare Commission said scores of patients died from infection by Clostridium difficile bacteria in Britain's worst outbreak of a hospital superbug. It blamed the trust board for a catalogue of safety lapses that caused the death toll between April 2004 and September 2006.

Mr Lansley said the government should have acted to suspend or sack the trust's board as soon as it received an advance copy of the commission's findings in the middle of last week.

Instead, it allowed directors to agree a package worth more than £250,000 for Rose Gibb, the chief executive, who quit her job on Friday last week without any announcement or public explanation.

Mr Lansley said: "This devastating report should have precipitated the immediate removal of those responsible on grounds of gross negligence. Normally employees are entitled to written warnings, but in circumstances of gross misconduct most contracts allow for summary dismissal. I do not know why that did not happen in this case."

The commission accused the trust of "significant failings in infection control". When inspectors went into its hospitals after the C difficile outbreaks were contained, they found patients being provided with bedpans that were visibly dirty with faeces. Bedding and equipment was left on the floor, fire doors were blocked and needle and sharp instrument disposal bins were overflowing on four wards. Staff washed cups in treatment room sinks and stored food in the clinical refrigerators.

Mr Lansley said: "The Department of Health could and should have removed the entire board and any directors with a contribution to make could have been appointed to a new one. The power exists when ministers have no confidence in a board. It is difficult to imagine what might be a graver offence than the one they perpetrated." Sacking the board would have forestalled any payoffs, he added.

After media criticism of the payoff on Thursday, the health secretary, Alan Johnson, instructed the trust to withhold the severance payment, pending legal advice. The department said yesterday its lawyers were still considering the matter."

The national scandal that is the NHS: - the 'Health' service that harms, and even kills, far too many of the people who use and pay for it.

Where to start? - There is such a mass of evidence of appallingly poor hygiene and appallingly poor care amounting, in my opinion, to cruelty, in yesterday's reports that shocked and shamed and horrified our nation...

Healthcare Commission Report

Case studies: Wretched death of C.diff victims - Telegraph


Extract:

"Everything was going well, the hip was fixing, then four days after her operation to mend her hip we were told she had diarrhoea. As far as we knew that's all she had. We were not told that she had C.diff.

"She was left in her own soiled sheets and was sobbing because nobody had cleaned her up. Her treatment was appalling. She was not being fed properly, not being cleaned, and there was only one commode between six patients. She didn't die of a broken hip, she died of hospital neglect."

Mrs Stewart said she was considering suing Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust. She said she was "not surprised" by the Healthcare Commission's revelation of so many deaths from C.diff.

"They seemed to be taking bodies away every five minutes," she said."

Superbug boss has record of dirty hospitals - Telegraph

Extract:

"Asked what she intended to do about the filthy wards at her hospital, Rose Gibb insisted she had introduced an "action plan" that would "address the issues" of inadequate cleaning.

This classic piece of management-speak was delivered in March 2001, when Miss Gibb was implicated in the first of a string of hygiene scandals at three separate NHS trusts.

The Daily Telegraph has learned that Miss Gibb, who rose to the £150,000-a-year post of chief executive of the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust before she left the job last week, has an unenviable track record of presiding over dirty hospitals where infections have been able to spread.

Despite this, Miss Gibb has been richly rewarded by the NHS, which may yet give her £250,000 in severance pay if the Health Secretary's attempt to block it is ruled illegal."

I hope this woman receives a prison sentence...

Pay-off to superbug hospital chief is blocked - Telegraph

Read what ordinary citizens have to say about these disgraceful matters: - Health Secretary intervenes in superbug row: Have your say: How worried are you about hospital hygiene?