HEALTH bosses with Blackburn's Primary Care Trust have volunteered to have their plans for the next five years scrutinized by the public.

The one-year-old Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley PCT, the first of its kind in East Lancashire, unveiled its strategic plan for the future of community health services at its board meeting.

But, although it is a public document, members were worried local residents would not get to see what they had in store, and so agreed to put it on their web site. They may also circulate it in doctors' surgeries. The plan includes priorities on child health, teenage pregnancies, the health of older people and health promotion.

It also sets out aims to recruit more staff to cope with its increasing responsibilities, which it will be taking on as part of the reorganisation of the health service, which will see East Lancashire Health Authority abolished and a larger one covering Cumbria and Lancashire established.

The plan, which does not include the PCT's business plan for the future, includes developing strategies to tackle areas like coronary heart disease, cancer and smoking cessatio, developing links with local networks and setting up specialist committees.