MRSA row: Shamed hospital trust keeps boss's pay-off a secret

The health trust at the centre of Britain's worst superbug outbreak last night refused to say how much it has given its chief executive in a pay-off.

Rose Gibb is rumoured to have received between £250,000 and £400,000 despite a damning report on three hospitals for which she was responsible.

The Daily Mail requested the figure under the Freedom of Information Act but trustees refused to reveal it.

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They claimed that publicising the 'golden goodbye' would break the Data Protection Act, even though they will have to publish it in their annual report next year.

They also claimed they would be breaching a confidentiality agreement reached with Miss Gibb – meaning she could sue them.

Health Secretary Alan Johnson has told the trust to suspend payment, pending legal advice on whether he can order the trust not to pay up. Legal experts doubt that he can do this.

Miss Gibb resigned as £150,000-a-year boss of Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells trust a week before a damning report found that at least 90 people had died of C. diff at the three hospitals she was in charge of.

The investigation found that appalling hygiene standards had allowed the infection to spread like wildfire through the hospitals.

In all, the ward conditions contributed to the deaths of 270 patients and the infection of more than 1,100.

Police are investigating whether to charge Miss Gibb, or other senior managers and board members, with manslaughter.

Last week trust chairman James Lee also stepped down. He had previously tendered his resignation but it had been refused.

The golden goodbye is known to be more than £100,000 and sources say it could be as high as £400,000.

This would be in line with common practice that a person leaving such a position would receive between two and three years' pay.

At her £700,000 home near Cobham in Kent, Miss Gibb has refused to comment on her departure.

The report earlier this month from the Healthcare Commission said a shortage of nurses at the trust meant showers and sinks in its three hospitals were filthy and commodes were not cleaned.

The trust was said to be so obsessed with meeting Government waiting-time targets – and a huge financial deficit – that it took little action on fighting the bug.

Bereaved families described nursing care as "despicable" and "sickening", with patients left lying for hours in their own excrement.

This weekend it emerged that the Department of Health had failed to take action despite knowing of the failures at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells for five months.

Geoff Martin of London Health Emergency said the trust's refusal to hand over the information was a disgrace.

"We as taxpayers have a right to know how much we are paying off senior managers who have walked away from the carnage at this trust," he said.

"The families of those who died should definitely be informed how much money has gone into her back pocket.

"The trust says this is confidential but they are required by law to publish the figure in their annual report, so they should tell us now."

There had been a history of high infection rates at the trust, which was consistently among the 25 per cent of authorities with the highest rates of C. diff since surveillance began in 2004.

But the board was unaware of this and never even discussed it.

The Data Protection Act is designed to protect private information from becoming public.

But it is incredibly complicated and many companies hide behind it to keep information secret which should be in the public domain.