Trust To Defend Itself Against Legal Challenge

- 04 November 2008;Kent Messenger

By Mary Graham

THE pay-off wanted by former hospitals boss Rose Gibb is higher than the total compensation claims of 25 families who lost loved ones in C-diff outbreaks, a solicitor has said.

Rose Gibb, former chief executive of the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, has served legal papers at the High Court asking for a minimum of £250,000.

A damning report by the Healthcare Commission revealed 90 people died with C-diff infections in the trust's hospitals between 2004 and 2006.

But Canterbury-based medical negligence solicitor, Sarah Harman, said: "The potential claims for around 25 families is less than what Rose Gibb is asking for.

"But it is not just about the money for them, it is about getting an admission of responsibility."

Miss Gibb has already been offered £75,000, representing six months' salary by the trust, the legal minimum it said it could pay.

That was offered three months after Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, stepped in to halt any pay-off.

But the court papers claim that she negotiated a written deal, called a Compromise Agreement, worth £250,000 shortly before her departure from the trust on October 5.

Painful

Her legal action is to recover the rest of that deal. She is suing for £174,573, plus £5,698 of interest, between November and early February.

She also wants interest of £54.79 a day to be added from February 15.

Jon Restell, chief executive of Miss Gibb's union, Managers In Partnership, said: "We know families and staff will be finding it painful to hear again about a legal wrangle over compensation.

"Unfortunately the facts are that Rose Gibb was reluctant to quit her job. The NHS told her she had no choice but to leave and so she accepted an offer of money to go."

The trust has yet to give its account of her departure.

A trust spokesman said: "The trust intends to vigorously defend the claims brought against it."

Jackie Stewart, whose mother Mary Hirst, of Bearsted, died after contracting C-diff in 2006, is one of those suing the NHS.

She said: "Why does she think she is so untouchable? Anyone else would have taken the £75,000 and walked away quietly.

"Every time she does something like this it heaps more misery on us."