HEALTH bosses across the county have been left to "manage the unmanageable" according to a disillusioned consultant who is quitting after a quarter century of service.

Dr Reg Johnstone - whose outspoken opposition to the downgrading of Kidderminster General Hospital led to a political spell with the Health Concern party - said he had had enough of working at the town's hospital.

He forecast a "fairly bleak" future for county patients, with potentially life-threatening dashes to Worcester for treatment, a spiralling financial overspend and unacceptable waiting lists.

He said most fears over the "cataclysmic" downgrading had come true and the design and location of a much-vaunted new hospital at Worcester was open to question.

But the 55-year-old consultant anaesthetist, who is moving out of the county to take up a new hospital post, warned the fight must go on to get the best possible health care.

This must see Wyre Forest residents adopt a "selfish" attitude to health care, said Dr Johnstone who leaves as a district councillor for Rock and Ribbesford in March.

A spokesman for Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said Dr Johnstone was re-treading old ground and maintained the trust was "leading the development and expansion of high quality hospital services".

The consutant - who has worked at Kidderminster Hospital since 1979 - famously told the Shuttle/Times & News at the height of the outcry over the downgrading plans that patients would "die on the road," on the way to Worcester.

Today he said: "I have heard of two cases at least where people have died who were alive when they were leaving Kidderminster.

"That is not to say they would definitely have survived (if they had been treated in Kidderminster). But the chance they might have had had been taken away."

While Worcester hospital staff have battled to keep up with emergency admissions from across the county, Dr Johnstone said Kidderminster had become a shadow of its former self since the removal of the accident and emergency and intensive care facilities.

He said: "I am there to do the work and there ain't no work and, in many ways, I feel for the taxpayer.

"I am not getting any job satisfaction in my post at the moment."

He added: "Alexandra Hospital and Worcestershire Royal Hospital are under considerable pressure from a relative increase in workload. That also is very much tied in with staff morale, which is very significant."

He said the only way to tackle waiting times and speed up emergency admissions now was to re-instate the 190 beds taken from Kidderminster more than three years ago, adding Alexandra Hospital would be an ideal location.

He said: "There is a lot of land around the hospital and it would certainly seem to be feasible to expand in-patient beds there, maybe with a new-build."

Meanwhile, he added the new £19 million treatment centre at Kidderminster - designed to create more beds for pre-booked operations - would only go some way to driving down waiting lists.

"It remains to be seen what Kidderminster Hospital, in its new form, can physically handle because the new treatment centre will probably have a capability for increased throughput but largely of the sort of cases it is handling now."

He added: "As far as Kidderminster is concerned they are fishing for things to do with it rather than having a clear plan."

Yet Dr Johnstone paid tribute to the current health authority - Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust - for its openness and co-operation, but said: "The problem is they are trying to manage an unmanageable cause. I believe they have managed an unworkable system.

"I would say the future for the county health services is fairly bleak."

He said at the crux of the trust's problems was the new Worcestershire Royal Hospital on the outskirts of Worcester, built with cash from the private sector.

"Despite the fact that some elective surgery was moved to Redditch and Kidderminster there are still cancelled operations, long trolley waits in A & E and the size reduction is excessive for the workload imposed upon it.

"This is simply because the health authority could not afford to support the financing of a bigger hospital."

The hospital was merely a "brash public statement of scale" but lacked the utilitarian layout of Redditch, said Dr Johnstone.

Instead, it should have been built in Ombersley or Habberley to be a focal point for county patients.

He urged residents to fight the raw deal he felt they had been given: "I think the people of Wyre Forest must be selfish. They must fight their own corner and they must demand the services they need."

After 25 years of service to Kidderminster, Dr Johnstone is leaving for Cumbria to carry on his work, with fond memories of Kidderminster Hospital as it was, and of his four-year tenure with Health Concern on Wyre Forest District Council.

He said: "It is my firm view that Health Concern is a very diverse group of individuals with considerable capabilities who just happen to have a common over-riding interest in the injustice which has been wrought on the community."

Looking back at the downgrading - which sparked an unprecedented outcry from Kidderminster residents and the election of Dr Richard Taylor, the only independent MP to Parliament - he said: "We were aware of the shortcomings and we could have addressed them. It could have continued to serve as a general hospital with a small amount of added expenditure."

A spokesman for Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said: "We are disappointed that Dr Johnstone has decided to leave at what is a very positive and exciting time for healthcare, in Kidderminster particularly, and Worcestershire generally. It is most unusual for a consultant of his age and experience to go to another job.

"The points he raises have been made in the past.

"The Trust now has a strong management team - including many of Dr Johnstone's senior clinical colleagues - who are capable of, and committed to, leading the development and expansion of high quality hospital services for the whole county."