TWELVE new members have been appointed to the Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley NHS Trust's ethnic minorities panel.

The panel is an advisory body which allows members of the trust board to discuss health matters with people from a cross section of the ethnic community.

The new members will serve on the panel, which meets twice a year at Queen's Park Hospital, until next year.

The panel, established five years ago, next meets on March 13.

Trust chairman Ian Woolley said: "The ethnic minorities panel provides an invaluable forum for giving advice to the trust board on health and employment issues relating to our ethnic minority communities.

"I am sure that the 12 people recently appointed will make a significant contribution to the panel and help this trust to make further improvements."

The new members include Lord Patel of Blackburn from the Indian Workers' Association; Shokat Ali from Hyndburn Council Community Advice Centre; Anjum Anwar, tutor for Accrington and Rossendale College through ELS (Education Lecturing Service); Charan Singh Bhamra from the India League; Rukhsana Desai, an assistant probation officer in Blackburn and Ajaib Hussain from the Pakistan Welfare Association.

Also appointed were Moosa Karolia JP from the Ethnic Minorities Development Association; Beena Kotecha, head of Training 2000; Salim Ismail Mulla from Queen's Park and Audley Advice Centre; Imtiaz Patel, community education officer for the Communicare NHS Trust; Abdul Piracha from the Ethnic Minorities Health and Social Forum, and Janaid Qureshi from the Racial Equality Council.

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