A patient watchdog has been formed in Bradford following the Government's decision to scrap Community Health Councils.

Health Minister David Lammy announced yesterday that CHCs will be axed on September 1.

The Bradford District Patient and Advice Liaison Services (PALS) will replace CHCs in Bradford and Airedale.

The team, based at Queensbury Health Centre, includes representatives from all four of the district's primary care trusts, officers working in hospitals, West Yorkshire's ambulance service, and Bradford District Care Trust.

Bradford Council's overview and scrutiny committee has also taken part of the CHCs' watchdog role and will work with the Bradford Patient Advice and Liaison Service.

The service has also set up a hotline for patients and introduced touch-screen information points in Airedale General Hospital, in Steeton, and Lynfield Mount and St Luke's hospitals in Bradford, where people can access information in a variety of languages.

There are plans to introduce information points in libraries, supermarkets and surgeries, where patients will also be able to give comments, and a website is being developed.

The service sprang out of the Government's NHS Plan, published in 2000, which set out a blueprint of how services should develop.

Angela Hamilton, head of PALS in Bradford, who is also a member of the national development group, said the decision to provide a district-wide organisation rather than eight services was a model for the rest of the country.

"The key thing the public told us when we were developing this service is they didn't want to be pushed from pillar to post, so we decided on one, central service with one phone number," she said.

Mrs Hamilton said the service works on what it calls the four Cs - concerns, comments, complements and complaints.

"If people want to raise concerns, no matter how small, we are here," she said.

Health Minister Mr Lammy said the new system would give patients a voice about how they are treated. Patients' Forums were being formed with the support of the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health.

"The Commission promotes and champions the involvement of the public in decisions to ensure their voices are supported, encouraged and, where necessary, enforced," he said.

"The NHS belongs to the public. The creation of the Commission signals a key shift in the balance of power in the NHS, ensuring national standards are controlled locally, giving the public real influence and power to modernise their NHS."

Bradford PALS can be contacted by calling the hotline on (01274) 322777, writing to Freepost, NEA 13056, Bradford, BD13 1BR, or e-mailing pals@bradford.nhs.uk.

The office is open from 9am to 5pm Mondays to Fridays and the service is confidential.