THE acting chief executive of Bury and Rochdale Health Authority will head the new Bury Primary Care Trust (PCT).

Evan Boucher is to be the chief executive of the trust, which will be established next month.

Bury PCT will take over many of the functions of the present Bury and Rochdale Health Authority, as well as providing key community services including district nursing and health visiting.

There will be a diverse range of many other services and facilities to be managed by the PCT including health centres, Bealey Community Hospital, health promotion and health strategy development. The new trust will employ 650 staff.

Mr Boucher has been the acting chief executive of Bury and Rochdale Health Authority since July. He was formerly director of strategic planning and commissioning for six years at the authority.

The married father-of-two has been involved in a wide range of health service developments in Bury and Rochdale, which began in 1995.

The wide-ranging review led to the health authority recommendation to transfer hospital services in Bury from Bury General to Fairfield to eliminate problems which were experienced by having split sites.

Mr Boucher's career in public service began in the north east in local government in 1967. He then moved to the north west in 1984, working for Bolton Council.

He said: "I welcome this opportunity to make a real impact on improving health services for patients in Bury. The PCT will allow for a focused approach to health service provision and more local accountability.

"I will be building on the relationships I have built up over the past six years since I have been working in Bury, with the staff, within the GP community, the hospital, the voluntary sector and with local authority colleagues to strive to deliver the best services possible. I am particularly looking forward to working with all the frontline staff to implement changes."