The health trust at the centre of the C-diff scandal has hit back at suggestions it did not offer explanations to the relatives of superbug victims.

Around 20 families who lost loved-ones in the C-diff outbreaks at hospitals run by the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust between 2004 and 2006 met in Maidstone on Monday to consider their legal challenges.

Prompted by medical negligence lawyer Sarah Harman, they resolved to decline any cash offers but fight to get individual explanations and apologies for what went wrong.

But on Tuesday a hospital spokesman said it was untrue to say the trust had not apologised or offered explanations. The trust says it apologised to all relatives and patients immediately after the publication of the Healthcare Commission's report and is repeating that apology now.

In a statement, the trust also said it had set up a public helpline for relatives and patients concerned by the report, and that chief executive Glenn Douglas met patients’ relatives individually and together.

Ms Harman told the meeting: "The trust may have made a lot of noise about taking on board the points the Healthcare Commision made but there has been no individual admissions of liability."

Janice Lansley, from Maidstone, who attended the meeting with her daughter, Andrea Padgham, lost her mother, Alice Mason, 85, in May 2006.

She said: "It is not about the money - I want them to admit things were wrong and recognise what happened.

"I feel I put my mother in the hospital to recover and I feel like I somehow killed her."