A STUDY claiming the controversial downgrading of Kidderminster Hospital had not adversely affected healthcare provision in Wyre Forest was likely to "open old wounds," according to the district's MP.

Dr Richard Taylor - who was first swept to Westminster on a tide of protest against the downgrading - took issue with findings of the research, commissioned by the Kidderminster-based Community Healthcare Audit and Research Trust - CHART - and carried out by Birmingham University.

Among conclusions of the study - Kidderminster's health: monitoring and evaluating the reconfiguration of the NHS in Worcestershire - was that although it had been expected that use of acute NHS beds would be reduced for Kidderminster residents due to the beds being moved from Kidderminster to Worcester, this proved not to be the case.

It added that a slight drop in emergency admissions in 2001 was offset by an increase in non-urgent admissions, while, overall, hospital admissions for Wyre Forest rose by more than the national average over the study period of three years.

Poor NHS consultation throughout the downgrading process, however, had resulted in major dissatisfaction among local medical staff and residents.

Dr Taylor said he believed the study, published on Tuesday, was "so far removed from local people's experiences that it was going to raise a lot of anger locally".

He added that at a time when some services were returning to Kidderminster, it was likely to "open old wounds", causing people to dwell on what they had lost.

"It's a very narrow inquiry, looking purely at health outcomes," he went on, "It isn't taking any account of quality of care, patients' reaction to the care they have received or the social effects of the changes."

He added he was "absolutely staggered" by the expectation that use of acute beds would have been reduced following the downgrading, as "good GPs" did not refer patients to hospital unnecessarily.

Dr Taylor, a former consultant at the hospital, also disputed the study's comment that "attendance by Wyre Forest residents at the MIU in Kidderminster in 2003 was around 80 per cent of those at Kidderminster A and E before its closure".

He said: "People from South Shropshire and Hagley also used our A and E and, if you lump that together, it's not 80 per cent - it's just over 50 per cent."

John Rostill, chief executive of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, however, welcomed the study.

He said it was "reassuring" that it demonstrated that healthcare for Wyre Forest residents had not been adversely affected by the reconfiguration of services.