HC Deb 10 May 2002 vol 385 cc402-3W
Mr. Wiggin

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will restore Kidderminster Hospital's status. [53882]

Yvette Cooper

A range of services, for a variety of patients, remain and continue to be developed at Kidderminster.

In May last year my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State, announced that the Government would establish an independent clinical review of future elective services at Kidderminster Hospital. The review resulted from the new opportunity presented by the planned increase in elective surgery arising from implementation of the NHS Plan. The review recommended that the hospital should carry out a wider variety of common operations, including tonsillectomies, gall bladder operations and more procedures on eyes, and ear, nose and throat surgery. We agreed with these conclusions and acted upon them.

In addition, a £13 million Ambulatory Care Centre is being developed at Kidderminster Hospital which due to be completed in 2003, and Worcestershire's new £87 million acute hospital opened in April 2002 incorporating state of the art facilities benefiting patients from across Worcestershire and beyond.