A NEW chairman has been appointed on a temporary basis to take charge of the hospital trust shamed by the C-diff scandal for the next five months.

George Jenkins has taken over as interim chairman of the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust until March next year, following the departure last week of former chairman, James Lee.

Mr Lee's departure came two weeks after the trust's former chief executive, Rose Gibb, stepped down - only days before the Healthcare Commission published its report into C-diff infection cases at the trust. Reports are now circulating that she applied to run hospitals in Greater Manchester, while the Healthcare Commission was carrying out its investigation.

Miss Gibb's replacement is Glenn Douglas, who is interim chief executive.

Mr Jenkins has been chairman of East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust since 2003 and will return to that role in March 2008. Nicholas Wells becomes acting chairman of the East Kent NHS Trust. The appointments have been approved by the independent Public Appointments Commission.

Mr Jenkins's appointment comes in the wake of the damning Healthcare Commission report, published earlier this month. It found 90 people died after contracting Clostridium Difficile at the trust's hospitals, between April 2004 and September 2006. The report also revealed a total of 1,170 people had been infected with the bug.

Members of the Maidstone division of the British Medical Association led calls for the entire board to resign.

Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, is still trying to block any severance payment to Miss Gibb.

Her salary was said to be between £145,000 to £150,000 and there was speculation her severance payment could be around £400,000.

Lawyers speculated this week that it would be diffficult, under contract law, to halt any payment.

But a Department of Health spokesman said: "Our position has not changed. We are still awaiting some legal advice on the issue."