PEOPLE throughout Morecambe Bay are to be given an opportunity to say how hospitals in the area should be run in the future and even what they should be called.

Later this month, bosses who manage hospitals in Kendal, Lancaster and Barrow are to launch a consultation on how a new foundation trust would operate in Morecambe Bay.

At the same time, and as part of a separate move, they want to find out whether the public think the trust should change its name. Bosses believe that people do not know where Morecambe Bay is, and regard it as a "sleepy backwater".

As previously reported, Morecambe Bay Hospitals NHS Trust has made a successful preliminary bid for the controversial foundation trust status.

Although they would remain part of the NHS, foundation trusts are freed from control from the Department of Health and strategic health authorities.

They would have greater freedom to run their own affairs and could borrow money.

Critics believe that the move will create a two-tier system within the NHS, allowing some hospitals to cream off staff.

Morecambe Bay hospitals trust chiefs have put together a model of how their foundation trust would operate.

Thousands of people who live in the area, or are trust patients or staff, could become members of the trust.

They would have an opportunity to vote for governors who would help to direct the strategy of the organisation.

The consultation will not ask people whether the trust should become a foundation trust, but on the details of how it would work. The trust board will take a decision about whether to go ahead with the application in late April.

While the consultation exercise is taking place, hospital chiefs also want to ask people whether they should change their name.

The trust has taken on a new role as a major undergraduate teaching centre for the University of Liverpool, which it hopes will provide it with a "breeding ground" for medical staff.

However, trust bosses worry that people do not know where Morecambe Bay is, which could affect recruitment.

Trust chief executive Ian Cumming said: "Over the next five years, we will become the second largest undergraduate teaching hospital affiliated to Liverpool University, yet we are seen and perceived as a sleepy little backwater."

One name that could provide a solution is The University Hospitals of North Lancashire, Furness and the Lakes, but Mr Cumming stressed no decisions had been made, and it was possible that, following consultation, the trust would not change its name.

The consultation exercise is due to start on February 23.