HEALTH boss, John Rostill, was given a round of applause by the friends after a frank speech where he admitted to a hospital "financial crisis".

The chief executive of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust - which runs Kidderminster Hospital - was not given an easy ride by members of the charity though, especially after one member likened the downgrading of Kidderminster Hospital to a Rolls Royce being replaced with a Morris Minor.

Mr Rostill said the "wheels came off the Rolls Royce" - to fury from members, yet the straight-talking Midlander persisted.

He said: "I come back to the point that, whatever happened, for whatever reason, we can't now replace it and we will never ever replace exactly what we had here."

He added Kidderminster Hospital carried out more surgical procedures in the last two weeks of March then ever before and the Treatment Centre was benefiting from the lack of emergency pressure.

The 57-year-old said the circumstances of his appointment from Walsall Hospitals NHS Trust, last September, should convince patients and supporters that he was determined to sort out the trust's financial and clinical woes.

He said: "I got lots of challenges at Walsall. I had taken them from the highest mortality figures in the country to something reasonable, in three years. I conceived and built and commissioned a hospital in two and half years - ahead of schedule. These are two of my greatest achievements."

He said health services in Worcestershire - serving primary, mental and hospital care - were to "share the pain" financially.