MINISTERS have been accused of restricting Worcestershire patients' choice of healthcare.

Wyre Forest MP Richard Taylor said the Government was failing to deliver on pledges to expand choice for patients - a key plank of both the Labour and Tory health policies.

Leading a Westminster Hall debate last night, the former NHS consultant pointed to a ruling in November that heart patients from Worcestershire would no longer be allowed to use a cardiac surgery instead.

They are now being forced to travel the extra distance to Coventry.

Dr Taylor said: "Because the major centre for cardiac surgery in Birmingham could not meet the targets, the local strategic health authority ruled, in its wisdom, that patients from my part of the world, from Wyre Forest and South Worcestershire, should go to Coventry cardiac surgical centre rather than Birmingham.

"That would be all right if patients were given the choice of going either 50 miles or 20 miles.

"I can honestly say that both probably provide services of an equally good standard, but that ruling has been interpreted in such a way that patients and the local cardiologists are left with no choice."

Shortage of staff

The independent Health Concern MP, who has campaigned for the reinstatement of emergency services at Kidderminster hospital, also pointed to a shortage of staff in key areas of the NHS.

"In the county of Worcestershire there is only one specialist available for a particular complicated but relatively commonly needed procedure.

"That specialist was called away on jury duty. There can be no choice in that case, because there is no service.

"Similarly, in my area, we have only one specialist for essential biopsies of the prostate. When that specialist is off sick there is no service."

"Dr Taylor went on to say that choice was a "laudable aim" in the long-term, but urged the Government to concentrate on the short-term priority of providing "local hospitals that are clean and well-resourced".

But Health Minister John Hutton said the Government was committed to both aims. "To think that we can only achieve one at the expense of the other is a false dichotomy," he said.

Mr Hutton added that choice was not restricted to hospital care. "The concept of patient choice goes much wider than simply access to routine operations.

"One should remember that 90 per cent of all patient journeys in the NHS begin and end in a GP's surgery.

"Hospitals are only the tip of the iceberg, and we need a concept that goes beyond simply providing more choice about operations."