ANYONE who has concerns or views about how the health service is run locally is being urged to attend the first meeting of a new patients' organisation.

The inaugural public meeting of the Morecambe Bay Patient and Public Involve-ment in Health Forums takes place on Tuesday, and will be an opportunity for people to have a say about the NHS. The forums are one of the bodies which have replaced the former community health councils (CHCs), which were disbanded in 2003.

Each health trust in England has a patients' forum to work with it, and in Morecambe Bay, the two forums representing the primary care trust and the hospitals trust are coming together to hold quarterly public meetings.

The forums are independent groups of volunteers who have an interest in health services. They do not handle indivi-duals' complaints, which was one feature of the CHCs' work. However, they will listen to concerns and investigate aspects of health care.

Jim Bradley, who chairs the Morecambe Bay Primary Care Trust patients' forum, said: "Our job is to listen to patients and the public, and find out what their concerns are about the health service as it is provided locally, and also to ensure that they are able to say their piece about any changes that are proposed in the local health service.

"We really want the public to be able to come to our open meetings and express their views so we can listen and hear from them, and they can have an input into how we plan our work. The mechanism of the forums has been set up specifically to be a route in which the public can have an involvement - and our job is to listen to the public."

As well as attending the meetings of the two trust boards, the forum members will have powers to receive information from the trusts, and require the trusts to respond to any investigations that they carry out.

In addition to the public meetings, people can also contact the forums at other times. However, Mr Bradley warned that they were a limited resource and would have to prioritise their work.

Stan Holmes is chairman of the Morecambe Bay Hospitals NHS Trust patients' forum.

l The meeting takes place at County Hall, Kendal, at 6pm, on Tuesday, May 25.