WYRE Forest GPs have been urged to back the campaign to save Kidderminster Hospital from further downgrading or closure.

Former MP Dr Richard Taylor has written to GP Dr Simon Gates, chairman of Wyre Forest Clinical Commissioning Group (WFCCG), asking him to outline where he stands on the issue.

WFCCG embodies 13 GP practices in North West Worcestershire and in April, 2013 will take over from the Primary Care Trust (PCT) as the purchaser of health and care services.

As it is currently operating in “shadow form” it is not helping drive the joint services review although it is being consulted.

In the letter, Dr Taylor, who fought an ultimately unsuccessful battle to save Kidderminster’s A&E department in 2000, said: “We need to know where our GPs and the WFCCG stand on this issue.

“I, perhaps, do not need to remind you it was some of our own GPs who, with the MP at the time, supported the Worcestershire Health Authority, as it was then, and thus made sure Kidderminster General Hospital was so drastically downgraded in 2000.”

Dr Gates, who is a GP at Bewdley Medical Centre, said GPs would look to form a view later on in the process.

“I think getting a single view from 70 GPs is not something we can do, although forming a consensus view is something the GP population would want to do once we have understood the views of our population,” he said.

“What we cannot do at this stage is get into a debate about what our favourite models are and are not,” added Dr Gates. “We want to listen to what is going on before we form a CCG view which will be part of the consultation.”