Police probe as dirty wards blamed for superbug toll

Published on Thursday 11 October 2007 14:05

HOSPITAL bosses could face criminal prosecution after 90 deaths from superbug Clostridium difficile were blamed today on appalling hygiene standards.

Officers are reviewing whether mismanagement by chiefs at Kent and Sussex Hospital, Pembury Hospital and Maidstone Hospital amounted to a criminal act, Kent Police said.

The infection contributed to the deaths of some 180 people and infected more than 1100 during two outbreaks in the autumn of 2005 and early 2006, a damning official report revealed today.

The outbreaks at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust were the worst ever seen in the UK.

Heath Secretary Alan Johnson, speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, said: "It's a scandal. It's awful."

The Healthcare Commission found a shortage of nurses meant wards and washing facilities were filthy, and patients were left to lie for hours in their own excrement.

The body's chief executive Anna Walker 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.

But the Government rejected any suggestion that Whitehall targets were responsible for the situation or that it was endemic in the NHS.

Mr Johnson said: "To suggest that in this particular incident, this reflects what's happening in the NHS across the country, is absolutely wrong."