HEALTH watchdogs have lobbied Bury's two MPs over the threat surrounding the future of the town's Community Health Council.

The Government wants to wind up the bodies nationwide but it could replace them with new patients' councils under a major shake-up of the National Health Service.

Bury CHC chief officer Mr Paul Reynolds is hopeful the health councils can continue, albeit in a different form.

He said: "We are a little more hopeful. At the last minute, during a Parliamentary debate, the Government decided to accept an amendment which proposed the setting up of patients' councils.

"In effect, these will be straight replacements for community health councils. So, hopefully, CHCs will re-invent themselves as these new councils. I feel a little more positive now." Mr Reynolds stressed the vital role Bury's CHC has played since its formation in 1974.

Among its current campaigns are:

A new access road for Fairfield General Hospital

Reconfiguration of mental health services in Bury

Pressure for improved services to the elderly, particularly in terms of assessment and rehabilitation.

The chief officer said it was "absolutely disgusting" that the Government was planning to scrap CHCs.

"We in the CHC hold to the same principles established when these bodies were set up in 1974.

"That is that the health service should be free to people at the point of use, regardless of their ability to pay or to go private."

Mr Reynolds recently met with Bury North MP David Chaytor and his Bury South counterpart Ivan Lewis to put the case for the retention of the CHC.

Meanwhile Mr John Walsh, the Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for Bury South, has re-affirmed his party's commitment to Bury CHC.

He said: "The CHC has been a powerful advocate of the patient in speaking out against failures in the NHS.

"The Government speaks of openness but the plan to abolish the CHC is another example of Labour spin."