The highly significant announcement regarding the pilot scheme to return doctor cover to the Minor Injuries Unit should be seen as what it is - a major and welcome decision by the Acute Trust to recognize the needs of Wyre Forest people, as supported for 8 years by Richard Taylor and Health Concern, for a restoration of doctor cover to treat more conditions locally and relieve pressure on Worcestershire and Redditch Hospitals.

Sad then that senior local Tories are decrying this as "just a minor change" and "nothing to do with Richard or Health Concern." It promotes a pungent smell of rotting sour grapes. 
The public know the truth and recognize how important a trial this will be – it is the pressure brought to bear by local public opinion as promoted through the election of an MP and local Councillors that has helped to persuade the Trust to take this creditable decision. Only individuals naïve and inexperienced in the ways that bureaucracy usually works would fail to recognize this.

Remarkably these same individuals are so far out of touch that they still decry Health Concern for "building up false expectations of a return to full A&E services." This stopped being our short term aim several years ago as unachievable! The local Tory Party Chairman wrote to the local press last October asking us to spell out just what our wish was for Emergency Services. An extract from our reply to the Shuttle published the first week in November 2006 is reproduced below and shows that even last year we were making progress on the decision announced last week and our position was perfectly clear.