Former hospital boss Rose Gibb has said she will continue to take legal advice over her failed bid for a £250,000 pay-off.

In a statement released through her union, she acknowledged that the process had been "traumatic".

Miss Gibb claimed she was owed the cash, promised to her as part of a severance package by Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust.

She stood down as chief executive in October 2007, just days before the Healthcare Commission released a report into 90 deaths related to the C-diff superbug at the hospitals Miss Gibb oversaw.

But the high court ruled the trust exceeded its legal powers in offering the deal, and said Miss Gibb was not entitled to the money.

Miss Gibb said: "The judge's ruling has been made over a contentious and complex point of law.

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"This matter has obviously been difficult for all parties, and there can be no winners. The whole event has been traumatic for all and highly damaging for the NHS."

"The judgment is long and complex and I'm going to take further advice from my lawyers and Managers in Partnership about the legal avenues now open to me.

"In the meantime I will continue to abide by the confidentiality agreement I signed in good faith. I would ask that the NHS and department of health respect my stance on confidentiality and afford me the same respect."

Managers in Partnership, which supported Miss Gibb in her bid for the pay-off, said it was disappointed with the decision.

Jon Restell, MiP's chief executive, said: "Rose Gibb was very reluctant to agree to leave her job like this but she was told she had no choice. She accepted assurances the payment was properly authorised.

"The fact is Rose Gibb wanted to stay in her job and face the music. The trust's actions stopped the public from seeing her held to account in a disciplinary procedure, at the end of which she may have been sacked without a penny, or exonerated."