NHS administrators have come in for some of the worst criticism of recent years as evidence of ward bug deaths at a Kent hospital became indefensible.
Reports showed that the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust had discovered severe hygiene failings in allowing the fatal infection Clostridium difficile to spread and claim 90 lives.
Health secretary Alan Johnson responded to public anger over poor hygiene conditions at the trust by ordering any severance pay for resigning chief executive Rose Gibb to be withheld.
The case has become serious enough for Kent police to become involved, considering the idea of prosecuting the trust for the irresponsibility which is claimed to have led to the deaths.
Investigations by the Healthcare Commission have uncovered what it claims are 90 deaths either probably or definitely caused by Clostridium difficile, with grave errors claimed in the treatment of the event.
Allegations are being made by the watchdog that nurse shortages and the moving of infected patients from ward to ward contributed to failure to check the out-break.
The intestinal bacterium can endanger lives by causing severe diarrhoea which can lead to ulceration and bleeding from the colon and in the worst case,[ potentially fatal perforation of the intestine – making the failure to check its progress at the trust a grave and contentious one.
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