THE death of a seven-yearold boy continues to haunt a former MP long after he vacated the corridors of power for a comfy chair in the garden.

The boy’s parents were among the many constituents who turned to Dr Richard Taylor for help when he was MP for Wyre Forest between 2001 and 2010 before he lost his seat to Conservative Mark Garnier.

But Dr Taylor was a hospital consultant at Kidderminster Hospital before he ever entered the murky waters of politics – from which he emerged unsullied while others were mired up to their necks in the expenses scandal.

Perhaps it is the doctor in him which makes it hard for him to accept that the boy died when there was the chance, however small, he might be saved.

Dr Taylor does not wish to name the boy or the precise nature of his medical complaint, but said: “The parents were so shattered they never wanted the details released.

“I brought it up in Parliament. I was so devastated I spoke to health ministers in particular. I said if you don’t have an A&E what do you do?

“Call NHS Direct, visit a minor injuries unit or use the GP out of hours service or a walk-in centre?

These intelligent, articulate parents got their child to the right place but the diagnosis wasn’t made and the poor child died.”

Dr Taylor, who worked as a consultant at Kidderminster Hospital between 1972 and 1995, has suggested a 111 number for people who are not ill enough to call 999 but do not have a local A&E.

Kidderminster Hospital has not had an A&E since health bosses downgraded the services there, the burning issue on which he was first elected.

Cambridge graduate Dr Taylor, aged 77, believes a few simple questions and protocols would have meant the boy got the care he needed.

Dr Taylor said: “It was a very serious problem and if the correct diagnosis had been made he would have got a chance. Without the correct diagnosis he had no chance.

I was absolutely livid about this. I helped the family go through the formal complaints procedure and it was a whitewash.”

Dr Taylor is not happy that the previous Government downsized the complaint procedure, removing the option to get an independent opinion.

“People are frightened to complain, particularly if they’re still undergoing treatment,” he says.

Meanwhile, he is very interested in protecting whistle-blowers within the NHS.

He presented a Private Members Bill in 2009 calling for independent support officers for NHS employees who wish to make certain disclosures in the public interest.

Such a Bill would protect people like Brendan Young, who is facing disciplinary action for “misconduct” for revealing details of a proposal to move acute stroke care from Worcester to Redditch – although Mr Young does not see himself as a whistle-blower (he will not give the name of the whistleblower).

On the issue itself, Dr Taylor does not disapprove of the principle of a centralised stroke service but does not believe that the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch is the right place for it.

“The fact that the idea was secret is against all ideas of consultation,” he said.

Despite his many achievements in local healthcare – prompting the investigation into the failures of the private company Take Care Now (TCN) which used to run the out of hours service before Harmoni took over, leading a campaign to raise £400,000 towards the cancer resource centre at Kidderminster Hospital, raising concerns about the 25,000 patients dying of the preventable venous thromboembolism a year – perhaps the thing Dr Taylor is most known for is his work to prevent what some refer to as the “downgrading”

of Kidderminster Hospital.

Although people in Kidderminster have moved on, Dr Taylor says the downgrading of Kidderminster Hospital has left a scar on the town and while he was not able to prevent it he says the battle has prevented other, smaller hospitals elsewhere from being downgraded in a similar way, allowing them to keep their A&E departments.

He said: “Feelings may be mellowing but people of my generation are still very angry about it. It has left a scar.

“We have to use Kidderminster Hospital more to make the other hospitals in Worcestershire viable.”

What of the future? GPs are to be the new custodians of the NHS.

One of the things Dr Taylor is most concerned about is the privatisation of the NHS and the potential for foreign firms interested purely in profit to take control, fragmenting the existing service.

However muddy the waters are, one thing is clear. When the visionary politicians decide to meddle in the NHS it would be prudent of them to speak to men like Dr Taylor.

He is not the type to sit on the proverbial fence but as a former politician and a medical man himself he is ideally placed to know what life is like either side of it.