Bid to restore doctor service

A campaign was launched today to restore a doctor service to Kidderminster's minor injuries unit to help save thousands of patients from making a 40-mile round trip to Worcester.

Health campaigners from Worcestershire descended on London to join a mass rally against government plans to close or downgrade hospitals around the country.

The group turned up at Westminster to support people protesting against local hospitals suffering a similar fate to their own in Kidderminster.

Wyre Forest MP Dr Richard Taylor is among those lobbying health chiefs to upgrade what remains of the hospital, whose accident and emergency centre was downgraded to a minor injuries unit.

They want a doctor reinstated at the site to join the nurses who currently run the unit.

Meanwhile members of the Health Concern party from the Wyre Forest district were making formal requests for a doctor to be based at the unit at a meeting of Worcestershire Primary Care Trust at County Hall in Worcester.

Dr Taylor said: "What happened to Kidderminster was totally unacceptable and has been shown to not work, which is why we are supporting every other group against the drastic degree of downgrading that we suffered.

"No community like Wyre Forest should be condemned when they lose their accident and emergency department to have as a replacement just a minor injuries unit led by nurses.

"However good the nurses are, because they are good, without the presence of a doctor, they cannot see large numbers of emergency patients.

"If hospital downgrades are necessary, they must never be as severe as that in Kidderminster.

Councillor Howard Eeles, a retired Kidderminster Hospital doctor, said a doctor at Kidderminster would reduce the work at the Worcestershire Royal by avoiding unnecessary admissions.

By Sol Buckner and Sunita Patel