THE new chairman of the hospital trust rocked by the C-diff scandal has vowed to read every complaint made.

Tony Jones officially took over as chairman of the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust at the start of the month.

His vow to read every complaint is one of a number of things on his jobs list.

He said: “I am not a one-man complaints service. I do it so I can keep an eye on how the hospital is operating.

“The role is about reassuring myself and the community that our hospitals are safe and working well, as well as leading the board.”

Since his appointment, he has been trying to meet as many staff as he can.

After a visit to one department, he received a letter from staff thanking him for taking the trouble to chat to them, adding it was the first time they had ever been visited by a chairman.

It perhaps sheds light on why the Healthcare Commission concluded in their damning October 2007 C-diff report, that the previous trust management and board were unaware of the scale of superbug outbreaks.

Mr Jones said: “We have to stand and pull together as a team and that’s done by chatting to people and finding out what is on their mind.”

In the fall-out from the C-diff report the entire board and most of management were replaced. Mr Jones, 64, from Hartlip, a former director of human resources for Jaguar, joined as a non-executive director in May.

Several recruitment drives to find a chairman to replace James Lee, who stepped down after the C-diff scandal, came to nothing and the hospital was headed by interim chairman, George Jenkins.

Mr Jones, who has been vice-chairman since August last year, officially took up the role at the beginning of January, at a higher than normal remuneration of £44,000 a year.

He said: “I had been contemplating getting involved in the NHS because it is the most complex organisation in the world, dealing with matters on a giant scale.

“I read the report and the trust’s situation appeared dire. You don’t have 90 deaths and a report like that without extreme problems.

“But I didn’t believe it truly reflected the ability of people in the hospitals and now I am here I am sure of that.”

Regular meetings between the board and staff working in infection control take place.

“We see all the trends and targets and if there is anything going on I will speak to the chief executive and director of infection prevention and control.

“But the role is not to stand over the executives – you have to have trust in them; it’s about sampling what we are told. So if we have a report that 85 per cent of people use hand gel, you go and have a look and have a count.”

He feels the trust could improve the “speediness” with which decisions are made but a development he is looking forward to is Maidstone Hospital becoming an international training centre for laparoscopic (keyhole) surgery later this year.

He will also chair the meeting at which clinicians will present their views on whether the Kent and Sussex Hospital in Tunbridge Wells will be ready to handle all emergency and orthopaedic surgery cases in May, or later this year.

Mr Jones said: “The board will look at it from what is best for patients. I’m sure there will be disagreements, on that, depending on people’s viewpoints, but we will be guided by clinical opinion.”