MOVES which will merge Blackburn and Burnley's health trusts into one East Lancashire-wide health body is expected to create the area's biggest employer.

Twelve weeks of public consultation on the moves by Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley NHS Trust and Burnley Healthcare NHS Trust to create one, large trust for the whole of the area, are due to be launched next Monday..

If the moves get the go-ahead by Health Secretary Alan Milburn in the summer, there will be an East Lancashire health trust, running hospitals in both areas, from April 2003.

It will move the two trusts from small trust status into a large organisation employing some 6,500 people and operating a combined budget of £210 million.

And it could make savings, which will be ploughed back into healthcare, of £500,000.

A spokesman for East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce confirmed that the organisation is expected to be the biggest employer in the area, with local authorities and colleges coming a close second.

But organisers stress the move, which they say will benefit patients and staff alike, is on an administrative and management basis only, and will not affect clinical services. In the long run, though, it will mean departments will join forces to offer better services to patients and also attract top quality staff.

Project director John Thomas, chief executive of the Blackburn trust but based at Burnley during his secondment, said many services could follow the example of ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) and opthalmology (eye services), which had been struggling to keep running and could not attract staff.

Around 10 jobs would go.

Chairman of the Burnley trust and project chairman, Azhar Ali said: "A recent poll in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph found around 70 per cent of readers in favour of this project and we hope we can build on that."

Public meetings will start at 7.30pm at each venue and be at:

Colne town hall on Tuesday, March 26;

Blackburn library in the Hornsby lecture theatre on March 28;

Darwen library on April 8;

Burnley town hall on April 9;

The council offices in Clitheroe on April 10;

Accrington town hall on April 15 and

Rossendale town hall on April 16.