I shall concentrate on hospital issues this week. 

The vital improvement in local hospital services for which I am working continually is an increase in the services available for emergencies. 
No other similar, or smaller, acute district general hospital that has been downgraded since the drastic changes here has been left with a minor injuries unit (MIU) as its only emergency reception facility. This is not a criticism of the dedicated nurses in our MIU who cope very well with about 70% of the cases that would have been seen in the A&E department prior to 2000. It is not sufficiently remembered that in the consultation document of November 1999 on the proposal to merge the three acute hospital trusts in the county the attendances at the three A&E departments in the county for the year to 31 March 1999 were listed as follows:

Thus the workload of the three departments was surprisingly similar. Therefore any increase in the number of patients that can be seen, assessed and treated now at Kidderminster would be of great benefit to local people as well as to the A&E department at Worcester by reducing its stressful workload. 
If staff were to be shared between the emergency departments here and in Worcester then if, after assessment, transfer for admission was necessary it would be facilitated as work done here would be accepted at Worcester and not reduplicated after transfer.

To upgrade our MIU to a doctor-led Urgent Care Centre, which is the designation of the emergency departments other downgraded acute hospitals have achieved is not a political decision within the gift of an MP whether a party member or an independent. 
It depends entirely on pressure from local commissioners (GPs) and staff of the emergency services in the whole county to press for such an improvement for the good of the whole county. 
Now that the county's Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) have been merged it is exactly the time when the county-wide organisation of emergency hospital care, provided by the Acute Trust, and out of hours care, provided by the PCT, should be reviewed and co-ordinated more logically and effectively than at present.

I believe that some Wyre Forest GPs and staff of the MIU do not support these changes which would see more local people being treated here and less unnecessary trips to Worcester with inevitable disruptive and adverse financial consequences. 
It is only if we all push together that we can have any hope of achieving this enhancement of emergency care that every other similar and even smaller community has. If anyone has objections to this aim to improve access for local people to emergency services for common conditions they must speak out now or join the battle with us.