MP's Join Forces To Call For West Mercia Health Authority

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 7th Sep 2001

MP's in Herefordshire, Shropshire and Worcestershire have joined together to call for the setting up of a West Mercia Health Authority comprised of the three counties.

Matthew Green (Ludlow), Paul Keetch (Hereford) and Dr Richard Taylor (Wyre Forest) have made their proposal on the day that the Government has announced its proposals for three Strategic Health Authorities in the West Midlands region.

The Government's plans put Shropshire with Staffordshire and lump Herefordshire and Worcestershire with Coventry and Warwickshire.

Matthew Green MP said the government's plan ignored the needs of rural areas: "These new Strategic Health Authorities are fine in principal but it is important that their boundaries reflect the needs of local communities. The new Authorities will have an important public health role. If the government's plans go ahead their focus will inevitably be drawn towards Stoke and Coventry to the detriment of the more rural areas. "

"Our proposals, which we will be circulating to local councils and other interested bodies in the Region, would create a health authority that would understand the needs of delivering a high quality Health Service in rural counties."

"Dr Richard Taylor MP said: "The Kidderminster Hospital saga shows that boundaries are not just administrative they can play a critical role on the location of services. Worcestershire Health Authority were able to ignore 25,000 people who used Kidderminster Hospital because those people were in other health Authorities.

"I suspect that if West Mercia Health Authority had been in existence five years ago, the closures at Kidderminster may not have gone ahead. The government's proposals will make it harder to get Accident and Emergency services restored to Kidderminster."

Paul Keetch MP said: "There is little commonsense in linking Herefordshire with Coventry. However diligent the staff of the new Authority will be there is be a danger that Herefordshire would rapidly become a forgotten. "

"A West Mercia Health Authority would be accepted by the public because it is the way the Police are organised. My fear is that the government's twelve week consultation period will be gone before people are aware of the significance of the decisions being taken."

"The consultation period starts today and lasts twelve weeks. There is only one option being put forward. The new Strategic Health Authorities are expected to come into force in April 2002.