l It is now more than two years since Dr Richard Taylor sent shockwaves through the political system by becoming the first independent elected to Parliament on a local issue in the modern era.

Labour was ousted in June 2001 when the former Kidderminster Hospital consultant GP swept home with a 17,630 majority, thanks to voters furious at the downgrading of their hospital. The impact made by Dr Taylor in the halls of Westminster has been the subject of debate but here he delivers his verdict on his progress.

TWO years into this Parliament it is appropriate to take stock of what has happened since Wyre Forest people used the ballot box so emphatically in June 2001 in favour of their much-loved acute hospital services remaining largely at Kidderminster.

Reactions to the huge vote came quickly. In August 2001 the British Medical Journal pointed out in a leading article that the political cost of drastically downgrading Kidderminster General Hospital was too great and that alternative ways of providing local hospital services had to be found.

In September 2001, Hazel Blears MP, then a junior health minister, wrote: "The culture within the NHS needs to change so that the views of patients and citizens are not only valued, but listened to and acted upon as well." What a contrast to the farce of dictatorial consultation we had endured!

Other MPs joined me in forming the All-Party Local Hospital Group to look into the problems faced by threatened hospitals across the country and I was elected to the influential parliamentary health select committee. Both these opportunities gave me an influence much stronger than a single vote as an individual MP.

A reward for our campaigning efforts came with the recognition of the "Kidderminster Effect" made obvious in the Government's change of policy document on hospital service provision published in February 2003 called Keeping the NHS Local - A New Direction of Travel.

This states that big is not always best when referring to acute hospitals and that patients want more, not fewer, local services.

It encourages the NHS to work "in a new stronger partnership with the public and staff to find high quality, sustainable solutions for local services, and deliver the agenda for reform".

One of the document's core patient principles is "developing options for change with people not for them". The document describes new ways of working with partnerships between local hospitals and their larger neighbours.

It stresses "the objective is to provide as a minimum a first port of call (a service able to receive and provide assessment, initial treatment and transfer where necessary)".

It defines the new direction of travel as "working with local communities and staff to rebuild local services around local needs".

This is encouragement for our efforts and will re-fuel our continued fight for a realistic doctor-led local emergency centre in Kidderminster after the return of in-patient surgery this Christmas with more promised during 2004.

Another helpful change is the establishment of local authority committees with responsibility for overview and scrutiny of NHS services.

In welcoming these bodies the respected Health Service Journal commented that if these committees had existed at the time, the changes at Kidderminster would almost certainly not have taken the same form.

To support this view the newly-formed Independent Reconf-iguration Panel, which can be called in by overview and scrutiny committees, upheld the battle by the people of Canterbury against the downgrading of their acute hospital.

Turning to events in London the realisation among Labour back-benchers that they hold the key role in holding this Government, with its huge majority, to account has resulted in telling rebellions in the division lobbies.

The lengths to which the Government whips will go to enforce their authority have amazed me and I have been relieved to see independently minded MPs defy these whips over the Iraq War, foundation hospitals and changes to the legal system.

On the influential health select committee we have undertaken detailed inquiries into the role of the private sector in the NHS, bed blocking, foundation trusts, sexual health and maternity services.

We have held brief inquiries into the National Institute for Clinical Excellence, the control of entry regulations and retail pharmacy services in the UK, the Victoria Climbie inquiry report and patient and public involvement in the NHS.

All have been very hard work but positively stimulating. I, with other committee members, would have made the reports on the role of the private sector and foundation trusts more critical but New Labour and Tory members, a majority of the committee, would not support outright condemnation of such important aspects of Government policy.

All the reports trigger a Government response. Community Health Councils have been given a brief reprieve to allow their successors, Primary Care Trust Patient Forums and Independent Complaints and Advocacy Services, time to take over. The Government was persuaded not to accept the Office of Fair Trading's recommendations about the entry into retail pharmacy.

I am vice-chairman of the all-party group on floods and a member of the group on sewers. Thank goodness the threat to the second phase of the Bewdley flood defences on Severnside South was averted and the problem of unadopted sewers is now recognised and is being addressed, although there are no immediate solutions.

High profile local concerns have been the incinerator campaign, the application for change of use of the hospital site and the proposed developments at Halfpenny Green Airfield.

The first two battles were won by the combined efforts of many, particularly Stop Kidderminster Incinerator and Wyre Forest district councillors and officers.

The airfield proposal has generated tremendous resistance and hopefully this, and reports by influential bodies like the transport select committee, will cause the government to rule against it.

Serious concerns and problems brought to me at my regular surgeries and by several hundred letters per month have covered, for example, the Child Support Agency, immigration, schools, the Public Guardianship Office, the Tax Credit Agency, policing, housing and health issues.

Sadly I am aware of disputes between neighbours that can cause severe stress, as does the behaviour of small numbers of young people. Though I cannot work miracles I hope my direct efforts and those behind the scenes on behalf of constituents have been helpful and never added to difficulties.

It has been encouraging to discover that many councillors, officers and volunteers are working on easing many of these problems and increasing facilities for our young people. I have been impressed by many of the business concerns that I have visited and their commitment to their local employees and to the necessity of innovation and high quality work to remain competitive in the current climate.

It has been an immense privilege for myself and family to enjoy attending or opening scores of voluntary organisation functions and charity events including school, town and village fetes and carnivals, mayors functions and sponsored events.

Kemp Hospice, one of our major local charities, goes from strength to strength and we look forward to the new and increased services to be developed at their new site.

Our councillors, independent of main political parties but not of each other, have shown they can run our local affairs successfully and exciting council-assisted developments have taken off or are planned in Kidderminster, Stourport and Bewdley.

I believe our "impossible dream" has flourished and will continue to prosper and so I look forward to the next two years with optimism and confidence.