The chairman of the axed Bradford Community Health Council, Mr Les Vasey, has every right to be proud of its work over the last 29 years.

Among the significant improvements to which it has made a major contribution have been the acceptance by hospitals of regular parental visits on children's wards, an end to the practice of children being treated on adult wards, a significant increase in the number of intensive-care beds in Bradford hospitals and the building of a new A&E department at the BRI, including a special children's department.

As well as these major policy developments, as the patients' watchdog it has also helped to tackle the many and varied issues raised by individuals on a week-to-week basis.

There will be many who consider that the CHC will be a hard act to follow when Government policy brings it to an end on December 1. Taking over its role will be a cluster of bodies: the cumbersomely-titled Bradford District Patients and Advice Liaison Services (PALS), new Patients' Forums and Bradford Council's overview and scrutiny committee.

It is to be hoped they are able to clearly identify their separate functions and those areas where they must work closely together.

Mr Vasey says he trusts that the patients' needs and rights will be cherished and supported under the new system. So, surely, must all of us who rely on the National Health Service.

It is vital that patients have a voice which is able both to protect them and to exert significant influence on an organisation which absorbs such a vast amount of the tax we pay.