Richard Taylor tells Wendy Brown why he stood for parliament in an attempt to stop the downgrading of his local hospital

Have you ever felt appalled by the state of the NHS or the closure or reduction of services in small, local, general hospitals? Well, why not set up your own political party? One man felt just like this and on 7 June Richard Taylor of Health Concern was elected with a majority of nearly 18 000 to be MP of Wyre Forest in Worcestershire. It was one of the best turnouts in the general election (68%).

Dr Richard Taylor, a 66 year old retired rheumatologist left Kidderminster Hospital after 23 years, but since April 1999 he has campaigned on the main issue of preventing the downgrading of the hospital.

Health Concern's fundamental belief is that, "We are all entitled to proper medical care within reasonable reach." It maintains that the hospital in Kidderminster, one of approximately 25 other small town general hospitals facing a bleak future, is an essential part of the community. The organisation wishes to "remind everyone that the NHS belongs to the people and is for the people and not for politicians, quangos, managers, or staff."

Dr Taylor's manifesto also contained pledges on issues such as local development and maintenance, as well as national issues such as Europe, defence, the NHS as a whole, education, agriculture, asylum seekers, crime, benefits, transport, fuel, and taxation. The manifesto covered other health related issues, such as euthanasia, abortion, and the legalisation of cannabis.

Dr Taylor is fundamentally opposed to euthanasia, but pledges to campaign for the recognition that prescribing pain relief may lead to an accelerated death. He is proabortion, but thinks that there should be a greater degree of flexibility on this issue. He believes that cannabis should be available for use as a controlled drug until further studies and recommendations have been made by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence.

On the NHS as a whole, Dr Taylor points out that academic authorities, including a University College London report of June 2000, believe that the private finance initiative could cause the bankruptcy of the NHS, leading to more public and private partnerships that he believes are "already threatening the basic ideals of the NHS." He thinks that rationing in the NHS should be discussed openly, and as with all the major political parties he believes in "adequate" funding of the NHS. However, his views on the early NHS has had him labelled a "medical dinosaur" and a "meddling amateur" for saying things such as, "In its heyday, the NHS was magnificent. Then we had the chance of making it so good that private practice would have become of complete irrelevance."

Dr Taylor's victory "shows the strength of the passions aroused by our failing National Health Service," and he has been described as "the hero of the election" by Ian Hislop, editor of Private Eye. It seems that he has proved many journalists and even the bookmakers wrong. At the end of May they were fielding odds of 6-1 against Dr Taylor, compared with approximately evens for the Conservatives and Labour.

However, Dr Taylor has admitted that it would be difficult to bring back the accident and emergency department to Kidderminster, which means that patients in his constituency will still be expected to travel up to 35 miles for emergency treatment.

The closure at Kidderminster will centre trauma and surgery care in Worcester, allowing a single hospital more money to spend on new technologies, such as magnetic resonance imaging scanners. Selling the land at Kidderminster Hospital could also help the health authority to clear its £9m deficit.