Compensation claim launched for superbug victims

02/04/2009

The families of 13 people who died after a superbug outbreak at Eastbourne District General Hospital (EDGH) have begun a compensation claim against East Sussex Hospitals Trust.

Eastbourne Today reports that there have been 62 cases of C Dificile, a bug which causes chronic diarrhoea and can be fatal to the elderly, at EDGH since January.

Nigel Watson, MP for Eastbourne, has written to health secretary Alan Johnson to demand an independent review to establish why more was not done to contain the outbreak.

He told the paper: "It now needs to be stopped in days rather than weeks so my elderly and frail constituents can feel totally safe going into hospital."

Some 90 patients at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust died from the disease in 2007, and families of the victims then also mounted legal action to claim compensation from the hospital.

An elderly patient in Chingford was recently awarded a £400,000 compensation fee after Whipps Cross University Hospital admitted liability for failing to diagnose her cancer, the Epping Guardian reports.

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