DR Taylor may have slammed the background to the hospital downgrading but he insisted he faced the future with optimism.

He stressed the unfairness of Kidderminster's situation compared to hospitals such as Hexham and Banbury, with smaller populations and journeys, retaining more facilities.

He had been vindicated by admissions from health bosses bed numbers were wrong and elective in-patient surgery had to return to Kidderminster.

Fellow MPs heard he was looking forward to the era when primary care trusts took control elsewhere in the county as he had good relations with Wyre Forest Primary Care Trust.

Referring to the resignation of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust chairman Harold Musgrove, he said: "With the appropriate replacements, I, and the primary care trust, may start to have meaningful dialogue, which has been impossible to date."