The constraints of time are difficult this week. The Standing Committee scrutinising the Human Tissue Bill takes up five hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays not including the time for preparation wading through arcane and tortuous language to try to dig out the meaning of some clauses.

Thus time for other meetings and attending debates is lost as keeping up with correspondence and constituency work has to come first. I was unable to attend more than the opening speeches of the debate on the Hutton Report. In all non Government circles, this has been seen as a whitewash and the dissatisfactions following this enquiry are likely to be repeated by the narrowness of the remit for the Butler Enquiry that appears to have been written to allow criticism only of the intelligence gathering organisations.

I enjoyed acting as an adjudicator at the Soroptimists Annual Public Speaking Contest held in Birmingham last Saturday. Contestants, aged between 15 and 16 years, came from all parts of the West Midlands and had to speak for exactly four minutes on a range of topics from "A policeman’s lot is not a happy one" to "Politics is a profession for which no preparation is needed".

The winner speaking on "Modern technology is outstripping civilisation" was Aaron Wright, from King Charles I School whose speech initially tied with an equally dazzling presentation from a contestant from Coventry. Congratulations to Aaron who won finally because his contribution at only 13 seconds over four minutes was more finely crafted than his opponent’s.

As I was unable to go to the church service to dedicate the new Treatment Centre, I had a tour on Monday morning. The inevitable teething problems are being sorted out and credit is due to staff members who have worked so hard to overcome the problems caused by moving into a unit not completely finished and with several rough edges (literally) remaining.

I was impressed with the facilities and pleased to see many familiar Kidderminster General Hospital staff working in excellent surroundings and delighted with this real evidence of some of the services we all need returning to our hospital.

Other good news is that the Capital Group who have taken over part of the old Pathology Block have achieved accreditation for their Medical Engineering Training Centre. This is the first such training centre in the UK and it is already attracting enquiries from Medical Centres and Health Authorities across the world.

Expansion is planned which could be an excellent source of income for the cash-strapped Acute Hospitals Trust. It is possible that Kidderminster could in the future become an International Centre of Medical Engineering Training. This development has had great support from the District Council and will now be recognised by the Learning and Skills Council and the Workforce Development Council.