AN outraged councillor has challenged David Lock to a public showdown after the Wyre Forest MP claimed hospital staff were "embarrassed" by the Save Kidderminster Hospital campaign.

Wyre Forest district councillor Brian Glass made the call after David Lock told fellow Labour party members he had been contacted by staff who were embarrassed by the campaign.

He claimed the staff now just wanted the hospital changes to go through as smoothly as possible as opposed to the ongoing fight for services by the hospital campaign.

Mr Glass, Health Concern councillor, wants Mr Lock to bring the "embarrassed" people to meet him to discuss their opinions in public.

He said: "Kidderminster Town Hall would be an ideal place for other people to hear these concerns.

"Myself and anybody else from the hospital I have spoken to does not know of anyone embarrassed about the campaign."

He added: "The campaign has been a credit to the district and something of which Kidderminster can be proud of and remember rather than the terrible changes which are happening to the hospital."

However, Mr Lock said Mr Glass would be wiser turning his attentions to concentrating on the timescale of hospital changes and not preventing the inevitable.

He said: "What was said in my letter to Labour party members was true but I am not in the business of discussing the concerns of people who come to me in confidence.

"What I am concerned about now is not the campaign to stop all change, but working to ensure the changes work for the benefit of local people, and are as much in the interests of staff and patients as possible.

He added: "This means working with the GPs, staff representatives and Worcestershire Health Authority.

"It's about time people stopped laying down silly challenges which will not benefit anyone and ended all the carping and undermining of the work people are doing."