Bug hospitals rudderless says MP

Chief executive Glenn Douglas is running two NHS trusts

A Kent MP has called on the government to look urgently at the need for new bosses at the NHS trust where 90 patients died from a superbug.

Tory MP for Tonbridge and Malling, Sir John Stanley, told the House of Commons that Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust was "rudderless".

It is sharing a chief executive, Glenn Douglas, with Ashford and St Peter's Hospitals NHS Trust in Surrey.

The trust said on Tuesday it had appointed an interim chairman.

Resigned before report

George Jenkins, chair of East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust, will be acting chairman until 31 March 2008, when a new permanent chair will be in place.

The previous chairman, James Lee, resigned four days after the damning report by the Healthcare Commission into outbreaks of clostridium difficile (C.difficile) at hospitals run by the trust.

Former chief executive, Rose Gibb, resigned on 5 October before the publication of the report on Maidstone, Pembury and the Kent and Sussex hospitals.

Sir John said patients had been treated in a way that was "absolutely abominable".

A consultant in the trust told him it was rudderless, he said, adding: "The secretary of state must get in and grip this situation."

Sir John said that a "full-time razor-sharp chief executive and a truly effective chairman" were needed.

Junior health minister Ann Keen agreed the C.difficile outbreaks showed a "failure" across all levels in the trust.

She said a review of leadership was taking place.

"The secretary of state is working very closely on a daily basis with everybody to bring these very sorry events to a conclusion," she said.