Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern (often known by the shorter name
Health Concern) is a
political partyA political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
based in
KidderminsterKidderminster is a town, in the Wyre Forest district of Worcestershire, England. It is located approximately seventeen miles south-west of Birmingham city centre and approximately fifteen miles north of Worcester city centre. The 2001 census recorded a population of 55,182 in the town...
,
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. It grew out of the campaign to restore the casualty unit at Kidderminster Hospital, and the
National Health ServiceThe National Health Service is the shared name of three of the four publicly funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom. They provide a comprehensive range of health services, the vast majority of which are free at the point of use to residents of the United Kingdom...
is still its primary focus, but the party has since diversified.
Dr Richard Taylor
The party had one
MPA Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
in the House of Commons,
Dr Richard TaylorRichard Thomas Taylor FRCP is an English doctor and former politician. He served as an Independent Member of Parliament for Wyre Forest between 2001 and 2010...
, who won a surprise landslide victory in the
2001 general electionThe United Kingdom general election, 2001 was held on Thursday 7 June 2001 to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. It was dubbed "the quiet landslide" by the media, as the Labour Party was re-elected with another landslide result and only suffered a net loss of 6 seats...
standing for the
Wyre Forest constituencyWyre Forest is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election...
, which includes Kidderminster. He was the only person not from a major national or regional party elected as an MP in the 2001 Parliament. Taylor was re-elected as member for Wyre Forest in the
2005 electionThe United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....
, albeit with a considerably reduced majority. On both occasions, Health Concern benefited from a decision by the
Liberal DemocratsThe Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...
not to put up a candidate of their own. However, the party lost its only seat in the 2010 election to Conservative, by a margin of 2,643 votes.
Local government
The KHHC is also active in local government, although it has lost much support in recent years. Before the
2004 local electionsThe 2004 Wyre Forest Council election took place on 10 June 2004 to elect members of Wyre Forest District Council in Worcestershire, England. The whole council was up for election with boundary changes since the last election in 2003...
, it held 16 seats on
Wyre ForestThis article is about the local government district in WorcestershireWyre Forest is a local government district in Worcestershire, England, covering the towns of Kidderminster, Stourport-on-Severn and Bewdley, and several civil parishes and their villages...
district council, making it the single biggest party, but in those elections it lost half of these seats to the
Conservative PartyThe Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
. The 2005
local electionsElections for local government were held in the England and Northern Ireland on 5 May 2005 along with the 2005 general election across the entire United Kingdom...
for Worcestershire County Council, held on the same day as the general election, also saw Health Concern perform poorly, losing five of its six seats. However, in
2006 local electionsThe 2006 Wyre Forest Council election took place on 4 May 2006 to elect members of Wyre Forest District Council in Worcestershire, England. One third of the council was up for election and the council stayed under no overall control....
for the district council, it held its own, making one net gain to take its representation from eight to nine. Above that, in the
May 2007 local electionsThe 2007 Wyre Forest Council election took place on 3 May 2007 to elect members of Wyre Forest District Council in Worcestershire, England. One third of the council was up for election and the council stayed under no overall control....
, their representation was again increased from nine to 10 members.
County Councillors
Currently Health Concern have three County Councillors, two in Worcestershire and one in Shropshire.
Organisation
According to the Electoral Commission's register of parties, its leader is Taylor, Peter Young is the nominating officer, Keith Robertson is treasurer, and Howard Martin is campaigns officer. The party does not have a formal membership. It had expenditure of about £12,000 and income of about £9,000 in the 2005 calendar year.