PATIENTS are being promised a health service embedded in their community after the Chorley and South Ribble Primary Care Trust was launched, with another one planned for Preston.

The Mayor of South Ribble, Councillor Norman Crossley, was at the opening of the new trust last week and welcomed the move.

He said it would help to "put pride back into the health service" by treating people in their homes to combat the lack of hospital beds.

Meanwhile, Alan Milburn, the Secretary of State for Health, was announcing that Preston's application to become a Primary Care Trust (PCT) had been successful. It is expected to be launched next April.

The idea of trust status is to put doctors and nurses at the forefront of developing healthcare for the communities they serve.

Local health professionals form an independent board to plan and commission local services. Such decisions, including how money is spent, were previously made at an authority level.

The overall aims of the PCT are to address inequalities in the health of the community, to develop primary and community health service and to commission secondary care services. Coun Crossley said: "My father was a senior executive in the health service and it's a pity he isn't here today to witness the alternative forms of care being provided.

"The potential here is phenomenal and it gives me a lot of hope for the future."

The scheme will help combat the lack of hospital beds, with district nurses going into people's homes to provide hands-on care with terminally or chronically ill patients, or advice on mental well being.

Health visitors will help to keep new mothers out of hospital by visiting pregnant women to give advice on preventing post-natal depression. This contact will be followed through after through birth.

Other services provided by the PCT include, physiotherapy, podiatry, sexual health, continence advice, medicine management, school nursing and speech therapy.

David Edmundson, chief executive of the North West Lancashire Health Authority, which represents the Preston Trust, said: "The move to Primary Care Trust will ensure that the decisions made to improve local residents' health are made as close to the residents as possible."