It has been a great satisfaction to be re-elected as Independent MP for Wyre Forest. 

The hospital issue is still very much alive with some services returning to Kidderminster Hospital and much more needed and now recognised to be necessary for the benefit of the whole County. 

Another vital issue relates to education following the Wyre Forest review and the decision to change from a three-tier system to two tiers with the closure of several schools. The three towns in Wyre Forest all have exciting developments in train and I am delighted still to be the local MP to support all these and to keep the pressure up to make sure the changes in health and education all lead to real improvements for local people and the County.

In London the new session promises to be much more exciting as the Government with its smaller majority and several potential rebel back benchers will not be able to have everything its own way so easily. Standing Committee membership will be more evenly balanced and so Opposition amendments to Bills will have a better chance of being accepted.

Understandably the debates on the Queen's Speech were virtually taken over by new MPs making their maiden speeches so I and other back bench MPs failed to catch the Speaker's eye during the health and education debate. I am planning other ways of making the points I wished to raise that would have been most appropriate in this debate.

At home I visited Kemp Hospice in their new home on Mason Road. The refurbishment and redesign of the building for its new purpose is impressive and the conservatory and garden will add greatly to the space and homeliness of the hospice. There is the provision for expansion if it is decided that Kemp should be asked to provide inpatient care.

After one of my regular meetings with the Chief Executive of the Acute Hospitals Trust I visited the Millbrook Suite and the Renal Dialysis Unit in the hospital. The Millbrook Suite is about to move to larger premises to enhance the service already provided.

I was impressed with the renal dialysis unit and relieved to hear from the consultant in charge and the manager that it is functioning well and now provides 13 places for dialysis for 16 hours on each of five days and 12 hours on one day per week. 
This is a huge boon to people from all parts of the County who previously had to travel out of the county for their maintenance dialysis. There are facilities to treat more patients but so far insufficient funds to make this possible.