SIX patients were struck down by the C-diff superbug at Maidstone Hospital this week as health care agencies met to discuss how to manage superbug outbreaks in hospitals.

A spokesman for the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, which was at the centre of the C-diff scandal in which 90 patients died between 2004 and 2006, said the new C-diff cases were being reported just before last weekend.

The spokesman stressed that, following an assessment, the outbreak was declared over on Thursday.

He said: "It affected six patients on the Jonathan Saunders ward. One of those has gone home, to Holland, and the other five patients are being nursed in side bays off the main ward."

Officials from the Healthcare Commission, who published the damning report into C-diff cases at the trust’s three hospitals, will visit the hospital on December 12 and 13.

They will question staff at the hospital on managing infections and changes that have been made since their report revealed lapses in hygiene and cleanliness standards, which allowed the bug to spread.

This week the trust appointed Dr Sara Mumford as the new head of infection control.

The West Kent Primary Care Trust (PCT) held its first public meeting on the C-diff crisis on Thursday.