THE Shadow Health Minister visited Kidderminster Hospital, pledging the Conservative Party would "look at" the lack of accident and emergency facilities if it got into power.

After being given a guided tour of the multi-million pound treatment centre by manager David Evans, who was accompanied by Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust chairman, Michael O'Riordan and Kidderminster Hospital medical director, Chris Tallents, Andrew Lansley told the Shuttle/Times and News he was impressed.

He said his visit on Monday, which was followed by a trip to Kidderminster Ambulance Station, Worcestershire Royal Hospital and the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch, had been a "learning" exercise and he believed centres like Kidderminster Hospital could be developed to offer a wider range of services in the future.

His arrival followed the visit of Shadow Chancellor, Oliver Letwin, to Kidderminster's Conservative headquarters, Margaret Thatcher House, on Thursday, when he talked to district Conservatives.

The party's parliamentary candidate for Wyre Forest, Mark Garnier, said he had requested Mr Lansley visit Kidderminster Hospital because he believed it was an important centre to consider when devising national health policy - and it was referred to in more than half of the comments he received when canvassing in the district.

"I think there are some splendid new facilities and they are very much in line with the way we want the NHS to go - bringing acute hospital services closer to people," Mr Lansley said after touring the hospital.

He added: "My job is to learn, rather than to offer too much of a prior thought about how things should work."

He added: "Where minor injuries are concerned, the fact there is a service here is a good thing. What must concern people is if they have a more serious accident or emergency and they have to travel to Worcester."

He said he would quiz Kidderminster ambulance workers about how long it took them to take heart attack or stroke victims to Worcester-shire Royal Hospital from Kidderminster and would try to judge the efficiency of the A and E service by talking to nursing staff at Worcester.

He added: "I'm sure we would look at the absence of an A and E at Kidderminster - not least because we want to create an NHS which is more responsive to the needs of patients.

He added: "I think here in Wyre Forest people know perfectly well that, in effect, they need to take exceptional measures to be listened to and that shouldn't be the case in the future.

"I can't say what that will lead to in A and E because the issues of safe and effective services and the patients' needs is a careful balance but you can see which way we want to take the NHS so it will be more effective to patients' needs."

When asked what ideas he had taken from his tour, he said: "I hope we will see centres like this develop in terms of the treatment of long-term conditions.

"The Government's development lately has left many people with long-term diseases as the poor relations of the NHS and we hope centres like this can change this."