THE fight to restore accident and emergency and inpatient services at Kidderminster Hospital goes on despite opposition from district medics.

Wyre Forest District Council has vowed to continue the battle for restoration of services on behalf of the electorate and has called on the Government to back its cause.

Doctors sent shockwaves through the district three weeks ago when they ruled out a return of blue-light A&E services and inpatients to Kidderminster.

However, councillors asserted the GPs had been pressured into backing the county health shake-up, which saw Kidderminster's downgrading, after three years sitting on the fence.

And they maintained the public view radically differed from Wyre Forest General Practitioners Association, district physicians and Wyre Forest MP David Lock, who have supported the downgrading.

Health Concern councillor and Kidderminster Hospital consultant Reg Johnstone said at the full council meeting on Wednesday: "The population is not so blind as to fail to appreciate the invidious situation in which those doctors have been placed.

"There is no reason for the public to remain silent over its expectations, for it is the politicians who provide the funding and it is the doctors who are subject to its constraints."

Council chairman John Gordon said the public hotline, set up by the authority, had confirmed the picture of a host of problems ranging from patients being kept waiting on trolleys to cancellation of operations.

He said: "The council cannot stand back and see misery, pain and heartache inflicted on our community.

"We hear again and again from patients, friends and relatives that the current system is simply not working.

"These are more than teething problems, they are signs of a plan running into crisis which can only worsen when the winter pressures hit and potentially put lives at risk."

He added: "We need the support of family doctors not their hindrance. We need an honest acknowledgement that the plan is not working and will not work.

"We need a commitment from the Prime Minister and Health Secretary they will give a fair chance for all and restore the much-needed core services to Kidderminster Hospital."

The ruling coalition of Health Concern, Liberal Democrat, Conservative and Liberal parties rebuffed a Labour amendment to halt the campaign while setting up a meeting with the General Practitioners Association.

The council indicated it would be willing to meet the association but not put the campaign on hold.

Council leader Mike Oborski said: "We need to take every opportunity to make our protest - time is not on our side.

"Somewhere down the line the hospital buildings will be demolished. We are racing against the clock."

The motion calling for the restoration of services was carried by 31 votes to two.

Of the Labour opposition councillors Conrad Bourne, Jim Cooper, Mick Grinnall, Lynne Hyde and Catherine Knott voted for the motion.

Labour leader Jamie Shaw and fellow member Chris Nicholls, who is on the board of Worcestershire Acute NHS Hospitals Trust, cast the two opposing votes.