HOSPITAL bosses distanced themselves from a leaked letter by a top doctor suggesting they merged to form an East Lancashire "super trust".

The private letter, from Blackburn's medical director Dr David Grimes to a senior Burnley consultant, proposed a new hospitals trust covering the whole of the area to help to fight off competition from trusts in Manchester and Liverpool.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.