AS Liberal Democrat spokesman for Social Services on Blackburn with Darwen Council, I have given strong support for the integration locally of social services, primary care, acute and community trusts for the benefit of patients.

Such matters as rehabilitation and transfer to residential homes or care within the community and improvement of psychiatric services have been to the forefront and I commend the work done.

However, central government is determined to steam-roller through:

A mammoth Mental Health Trust covering Blackpool through to Burnley with the addition of North Sefton and West Lancashire where medical care naturally gravitates to Merseyside. (The name "Mental Health" as opposed to Community Trust stigmatises mental illness).

A strategic Health Authority with very different boundaries, namely North and South Cumbria and Blackpool through to Burnley.

The ability of the local hospitals, and those services which were formerly under the community trust, to liaise with both the Primary Care Trust and Blackburn with Darwen Social Services will be seriously weakened and so, too, will the ability of patients, their carers and relatives to seek help and advice.

There will be one representative of PALS (a NHS funded patient advisory and liaison service) in each of the acute hospitals but they cannot answer for the present role of the community-driven and independent Community Health Councils or cover other areas such as mental health, dental, optician, ambulance and GP services, which, one hoped, future CHCs would be able to cover.

Lastly, how can VOICE -- a statutory body to support patient advocacy and strategic thinking -- one for each Strategic Health Authority, "hosted" by many disparate local authorities, heralded as a commission for public and patient involvement in health, make a real impact and genuinely oversee arrangements dictated by central government?

I cannot credit the Minister either with serious thought for the future of the health services or with a genuine regard for patients' care and concerns.

Councillor EDMUND CRITCHLEY, Merlin Road, Blackburn.