LABOUR Peer and television doctor Robert Winston will meet district GPs tomorrow to discuss a new health plan for Wyre Forest.

Lord Winston will endorse a vision of future healthcare drawn up by Wyre Forest MP David Lock.

Mr Lock has called on everyone to unite behind the blueprint stating: "Looking back and fighting old battles will not do any good."

The plan includes new initiatives such as boosting surgery at Kidderminster Hospital, round-the-clock transport services to Worcester and Redditch hospitals and a merger of the nurse-led minor injuries unit and doctor-led primary care centre at Kidderminster.

It also restates aims such as equal access for district patients in county hospitals and speeding up transfers from hospital to social services.

The MP's election rivals Mark Simpson, Conservative, and Dr Richard Taylor, Health Concern, both dismissed it as a cynical pre-election stunt.

They said it could not compensate for the downgrading of Kidderminster Hospital's accident and emergency department and closure of inpatient services under the county health plan.

However, Mr Lock insisted the blueprint was the way forward and challenged them to come up with options backed by district doctors.

He said: "This plan is up for discussion - I am not imposing any limits or constraints.

"What is important is that we look to the future and not try to restore services which local medical opinion say are unsafe."

Prof Winston said in advance of the meeting: "Local consultants and GPs both back the changes at Kidderminster Hospital and say it is not medically safe to bring back emergency services.

"They have the support of the health authority, the acute trust and the primary care trust.

"In those circumstances David Lock is right to say we must look forward to develop services, not seek to fight old battles.

"The medical community are right to say keeping a full range of emergency services at Kidderminster Hospital was not a medical option - and there is no safe halfway house."

However, Dr Taylor, Health Concern prospective parliamentary candidate, who will attend the meeting, countered: "With all due respect to Lord Winston he is here first and foremost as a Labour peer. He is a fertility expert not an authority on Kidderminster Hospital.

"He says there are no safe halfway houses. What about hospitals such as Kendal, Bishop Auckland and Hexham.

"I will be interested to learn more about this plan. A lot of it seems quite obvious but does boosting surgery mean elective in-patient surgery and overnight beds?

"Do the doctors back a merger of minor injuries unit and primary care centre? It seems a cheap way of getting doctors into the minor injuries unit - something they are adamantly against.

"If round-the-clock free transport means patients and relatives do not have to pay £32 for a taxi, good! It still does not avoid the basic problem that services should be in Kidderminster in the first place!"

Mr Simpson, the Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate, had not seen the plan, released yesterday, at the time of going to press but was sceptical.

He said: "As always with David Lock the devil is in the detail. We all remember him claiming he had saved Kidderminster's A&E. Wyre Forest people were disappointed to learn the truth only a month later.

"Do they deserve to be disappointed once again?"

He added: "As for Lord Winston, it was not long ago he was saying the health service under Labour was worse than in Poland.

"This seems to me like the desperate last throw of the dice by Labour in Wyre Forest."