A COUNTY MP has written to the Government demanding action to avert a hospital beds crisis across the area this winter.

Tory Peter Luff, MP for Mid-Worcestershire, is concerned that hospitals will not be able to cope with the increase of seriously-ill patients this winter, as the system is already showing strain.

Yesterday, the Evening News reported how patients were being shipped as far afield as Cheltenham, as hospitals across the county and in Hereford were full.

"If bed shortages are as severe as appears to be the case, I beg you to act now before Worcestershire's health service collapses under the strain," Mr Luff has written in a letter to Secretary of State for Health Alan Milburn.

"I invite you to investigate the allegations urgently, and act swiftly to increase the capacity of the county health service before the illnesses of winter overwhelm us."

In the letter, Mr Luff urges Mr Milburn to improve funding to Worcestershire's social services department, which is crippled by lack of cash.

The cash shortage means more elderly people are stuck in hospital beds while they wait for places in care homes.

Wyre Forest MP Dr Richard Taylor, who was voted in on the back of bed cuts at Kidderminster General hospital, joined the attack.

He called for beds to be restored at Kidderminster for elective surgery - freeing up surgical beds in Worcester.

And he maintained opening a Medical Assessment Unit at the downgraded site would speed up patient discharge times.

"Peter Luff is absolutely right," said Dr Taylor, who is still waiting for the Department of Health to forward the Darzi report on the future of Kidderminster hospital.

"This winter, unless some beds are reopened here in Kidderminster there is going to be a crisis."