The former boss of an NHS trust where 90 people died from superbug infections today said she was suing her former employer over the size of her payoff.
Rose Gibb resigned as chief executive of the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells trust in October, just before the Healthcare Commission published a damning report linking the deadly Clostridium difficile (C diff) outbreaks to poor management and appalling hygiene.
Papers lodged at the high court show she has started legal action to recover money said to have been agreed in a departure "compromise agreement" signed by her and the trust.
The Guardian revealed Gibb had been in line for a severance package worth more than £250,000. The health secretary, Alan Johnson, told the trust to freeze the deal and seek legal advice on how to withdraw from providing her with any further remuneration. He also sacked the trust's chairman and called for a departmental review of his role in agreeing Gibb's redundancy terms.
The trust said she would receive a settlement worth up to £75,000. It said she had a legal right to a payoff worth half her annual salary, which had been between £145,000 and £150,000.
But in February her union, Managers in Partnership, said she would reject the payoff and fight for more money. Gibb did not disclose the amount she hopes to recover but denied that it was £250,000.
She 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. They are in line with the compromise agreement. I don't recognise the figures that you quote."
The Healthcare Commission's report on C diff outbreaks at the trust between April 2004 and September 2006 found wards and washing facilities were filthy and patients were left to lie in their own excrement. Inspectors 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 superbug.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Kent police are still investigating the deaths, which were at the Kent and Sussex hospital, Pembury hospital and Maidstone hospital.
The relative of one C diff victim said Gibb should "walk away and count her blessings".
Steve Stroud's stepmother, Doreen Ford, 77, a retired civil servant, contracted C diff after being given a blood transfusion as part of her chemotherapy treatment at Maidstone hospital. Ford died five weeks later in October 2006.
Stroud, of Sevenoaks, Kent, said: "I think if Rose Gibb has already been given a reasonable payout then I think she should just walk away and count her blessings.
"I don't know what the set up was between her and the trust, but someone has to carry the can for what happened, so really she should take what she has got and say 'I got away with this'. If she is unhappy with what she has got and if there is money available to pay her more, then I'd like some of that to go to the families that have suffered.
"I wish my father could be given some money to compensate for losing out on the money that my stepmum brought into the household, because he has now been deprived of that. I've got no ill-will against Rose Gibb but why aren't the families being given any money?"
Geoff Martin, of the campaign group Health Emergency, said news of Gibb's legal action would demoralise staff left behind to restore public confidence at the trust. He said: "I'm not surprised that friends and relatives are bitterly angry at this latest development.
"I think the staff that were left behind to put the hospital trust back together from the wreckage will also be very angry. They have worked their guts out to restore confidence and I'm sure they will be unhappy. We all hoped that this episode had been put behind us but it appears as if there is still life left in it."
