Former hospital boss Rose Gibb has been awarded more than £190,000 damages after winning her legal battle.

Miss Gibb stepped down as the head of the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust in October 2007, days before a damning report revealed that there had been 90 deaths linked to C-diff outbreaks in its hospitals at Maidstone, Pembury and Tunbridge Wells.

A severance package worth £250,000 had already been agreed but health secretary Alan Johnson intervened and her pay-off was reduced to £75,000. Miss Gibb took legal action.

In April last year, the High Court dismissed her claim, but she was later given permission to take her case to the Court of Appeal.

Three judges heard her appeal in March and today delivered a ruling ordering the trust pay her £190,284 damages plus costs.

Lord Justice Sedley said: "It seems that the making of a public sacrifice to deflect press and public obloquy, which is what happened to the appellant, remains an accepted expedient of public administration."