A LAST ditch effort to fight early closure of hospital services in Kidderminster will be launched tonight when Wyre Forest District Council considers recourse to the law.

A recommendation to council policy makers urges them to seek advice on whether they can challenge by legal means transfers of services away from Kidderminster before the Worcester hospital opens in 2002.

The move backed by a policy advisory group meeting earlier this week triggered an immediate quest for an appropriate barrister and if approved could see the case in the hands of counsel by tomorrow morning.

Leader of the council Mike Oborski, who estimated the cost of advice at £2,500, predicted strong support for the move to be debated tonight by the council's policy and implementation committee.

He said: "The whole community is so concerned it seems certainly worth this amount of money to see if we can seek legal redress on what is happening to the hospital."

If the advice was the council could win an action, a fighting fund would have to be set up to raise between £40,000 and £50,000.

The action would be against either the Secretary of State for Health or the Secretary of State, the Worcestershire Health Authority and the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.