Welcome to the   

KIDDERMINSTER MEDICAL SOCIETY  WEBSITE  

The Medical Society Website has been on line since 1998. Prior to that, 1990 - 2002, Graeme Wilcox and Barrie Davies produced a paper copy which was distributed to members). The site is written in a fairly simple HTML language which does not allow some of the more spectacular graphic presentations that are now available on the web. Similarly, as time has gone on, its content has changed dramatically in line with the changes we have all witnessed in the health service both nationally and locally. The main content of the site now concentrates mainly on bursary announcements and, more important, bursary recipient reports which make superb and sometimes dramatic reading.

In Spring / Summer 2024 efforts were made to update the members mailing list and we were surprised to find that, despite the local health service structural changes, membership has remained steady with both retired and active hospital and general practice members. Efforts will be made to keep the list updated. However, the website is not restricted to medical society members and if you know of anyone who may be interested in the website content, don't hesitate to give them contact details - either through the website address www.kidderminstermedicalsociety.co.uk or through the site contact page which is on the selection bar above and below.

Notification of website updates will be sent to the members as they become available - particularly when new bursary reports are received. If, however, you wish to include news, comment or opinion (within reason !!!!!) you are more than welcome to get in touch through the contact page. Should letters or printable comment become available a members contact page will be introduced.

I have recently received an email from Chris Adam who is a trustee of the Kidderminster Aid in Sickness fund.

Many thanks for your replies gentlemen, a case of first come, first served and position filled.

Dr Richard Taylor

Dr Richard Taylor, the medic whose campaign to save his hospital spurred him to become an MP

DR RICHARD TAYLOR, who has died aged 89, was a retired NHS consultant so angered by the downgrading of his hospital, Kidderminster General, that in 2001 he stood for Parliament in protest; not only did he win the Wyre Forest seat, but in 2005 he was re-elected. A specialist in rheumatology at the hospital for 23 years, Taylor became chairman of its League of Friends after his retirement in 1995.

Two years on, regional NHS chiefs announced that Kidderminster General would be downgraded to a treatment centre and its A&E department replaced by a minor injuries unit. A Save the Kidderminster Hospital Campaign was launched, with Taylor on its committee, but despite a local outcry the closure went through in 2000.

A former RAF medical officer and a squadron leader in the reserve, Taylor was determined not to let NHS bureaucrats - or the New Labour government - get away with it. And with the 2001 election approaching he decided to take the fight to Westminster.

Traditionally, Wyre Forest was a safe Conservative seat, but in 1997 Labour’s David Lock captured it with a 6,946 majority. When the hospital downgrade - the first of a series planned around the country - was proposed, Lock supported it, sticking to his guns as local opposition intensified.

When the election was called, Taylor threw his hat into the ring as the Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern candidate. He stood on a single issue: restoring the A&E department.

The Liberal Democrats, who had come a poor third in 1997, decided not to oppose him, but Lock - an able young lawyer who was already a junior minister - and a new Tory candidate, Mark Gamier, fought the seat hard.

Taylor attracted a host of doorstep campaigners, including former colleagues and hospital staff. And on the night of June 7 2001 he pulled off a staggering victory. He did not just capture Wyre Forest in one of the biggest shocks of the night; he polled 28,487 votes, defeating Lock by a huge 17,630 majority and halving the Conservative vote.

Arriving at Westminster, he was allocated a seat on the Health Select Committee, the Conservatives giving up one of theirs “to allow him a strong voice on this influential platform”, as Gamier put it.  He did not get Kidderminster’s A&E reinstated, but he was always listened to, and probably saved other hospitals from downgrading or closure.

Four years on, Taylor was re-elected as a Health Concern candidate, with 18,739 votes and a majority of5,250 over Gamier - the first independent MP to retain a seat in a quarter of a century. He sought re-election again in 2010, aged 75, but despite polling almost a third of the vote lost to Gamier by 2,643 votes.

That was not the end for Taylor. In 2015 he stood again, this time for the National Health Action Party, and, although he finished fourth behind the Ukip candidate, 7,211 people voted for him. When he did not contest the 2017 election, Gamier paid tribute to Taylor’s ‘legacy of democracy and example by action. His presence on the stump made for a clean, decent fight on issues, not personalities’.

Richard Thomas Taylor was born on July 7^th 1934, the son of Thomas Taylor and the former Mabel Hickley. He boarded at the Leys School, Cambridge; Martin Bell, who as an independent would oust Neil Hamilton at Tatton in 1997 was two years below him.

Taylor went on to Clare College, Cambridge, completed his training at the Westminster Hospital and was then a houseman at Westminster, at Kingston Hospital and the London Chest Hospital. In 1960, he was commissioned into the medical branch of the RAF. During 1963 he was senior medical officer on the  former nuclear testing site of Christmas Island in the Pacific; then was MO for a year at the  RAF Hospital, Halton. He was transferred to the reserve in 1964 and promoted to squadron leader the following year.

After 8 years as a registrar and senior registrar in London Hospitals, in 1972 Taylor was appointed consultant physician with a special interest in Rheumatology at Kidderminster General and the Droitwich centre for Rheumatic Diseases.

While he mainly spoke in the commons on health issues, Taylor held other strong opinions. He advocated the reversal of rail privatisation and the legalisation of cannabis and opposed the invasion of Iraq, student top up fees  the euro and a ban on hunting. He was Co-chair of the all-party Local Hospital Group, Vice chairman of the all party groups on cancer and flood prevention and secretary of the group on patient and public involvement in health.

He was appointed an MBE in 2014 for ‘services to Kidderminster Hospital’. Richard Taylor married in 1962, Ann Brett; they had 2 daughters and a son. The marriage was dissolved and in 1990 he married Christine Miller; they had a further daughter.

Richard Taylor, born July 7^th 1934, died June 26^th 2024.