HEALTH watchdogs in Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale are expected to approve the proposed merger between Blackburn's and Burnley's health trusts at a special meeting next week.

Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale Community Health Council is expected to give approval subject to several conditions.

There will still be acute hospitals in both areas

There will still be A & E, critical care and maternity units at each hospital

That the merged trust board has all areas represented equally

That there is accountability to the patient and the public. The CHC, which has already given the merger a cautious welcome, believes there could be benefits to the merger, which it sees as "inevitable".

But it wants to ensure that Burnley and Blackburn are seen as equal partners and that one side does not dominate the organisation.

A report to the board by chief officer Helen Gee said: "Many see that a merger of the two trusts is inevitable, so a public consultation exercise is regarded by some as pointless. We are nevertheless grateful to those members of the public who did attend and who, in some cases, proved by their questioning, their interest and commitment to high quality NHS services in East Lancashire."

The report said that a merger between the Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley NHS Trust and the Burnley Healthcare Trust, would ensure more effective use of resources and skills and save on management costs, which could be ploughed back into patient care.

It would also be more attractive when recruiting staff, creating more specialist and larger clinical teams.

The council feels that any changes ought to benefit the public in terms of quality of care and that there ought to be a balance between ease of access to services and the concentration of expert care in specialist centres.

It also says any reorganisation should result in greater efficiency, reducing unnecessary bureaucracy and enabling maximum resources to be devoted to direct patient care.

Consultation on the planned merger, which is on an administrative basis, finishes on June 14.

When consultation finishes, if Health Secretary Alan Milburn gives the go-ahead, the two trusts could become East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust by April 2003.