SIX years ago, I remember a packed meeting at Redditch Town Hall where people expressed their frustration over growing waiting lists, closed wards and cancelled operations at the Alexandra Hospital.

We feared the whole hospital could be closed.

Today, the Alex is going from strength to strength - waiting lists are down this year, there are more nurses employed and the accident and emergency department has been modernised and now boasts two consultants.

Of course, there is more to do. Labour created the NHS and we still believe that healthcare should be free at the point of use.

Our plans for investment and reform in the NHS include cutting the maximum waiting times for outpatient appointments from six months to three months and for inpatients from 18 to six months by 2005.

But healthcare doesn't just stop in hospitals.

Our local paramedics now have access to computer links with the hospital so that heart attacks can be diagnosed in the ambulance and treatment started earlier.

Local GPs are now working together and will be given more and more power and funding as we move towards Primary Care Trusts.

There is now action to tackle unwanted teenage pregnancies and numbers are coming down and we will deliver the world's best services to help smokers to quit.

Redditch has the highest levels of smoking in the county, yet the Conservatives in Parliament voted against a ban on tobacco advertising.