People living throughout the Bradford district are to be asked their views on new health care organisations for their areas.

Primary Care Trusts will not only commission and buy hospital care for people living in the district but will also employ community staff, such as district nurses.

The new trusts - part of the Government's modernisation of the health service - could start work in October if the public consultation goes well and the Government gives the go-ahead.

The aim is to make sure people working in primary care, such as GPs, have more say over services which best suit their areas. The boards of the new PCTs will also have a high number of lay members to influence decision-making in their neighbourhoods.

The PCTs will replace Bradford's Primary Care Groups, which only started work last year. The district will have four PCTs, with the same boundaries as the present PCGs. They cover Bradford City, Bradford South and West, Bradford North and Airedale. They will have huge annual budgets to both commission and provide care, with the largest sums - of £90 million - going to Bradford City and Bradford South and West PCTs, which have the biggest populations living within them.

Anne Wagner, director of performance management at Bradford Health Authority, which is running the four three-month-long consultations, said: "There will be local accountability and decision-making. The four PCGs serve very different communities. Inner city practices with young populations and higher numbers of people from ethnic minorities have very different populations and priorities from practices in some areas of Airedale, for example, where access for an elderly population is important."

PCTs could work within national health targets to prioritise areas which were especially important for their populations, she said.

"We are particularly keen to hear the views of the community staff and GPs, and of the public. The consultation process for this initiative is about influencing the final application."

Separate consultation documents have been produced for each area, with leaflets explaining the main points in the changes which will be available in surgeries, libraries and other public places throughout the district.

Community nurses and other staff would have terms and conditions in their contracts protected when they were taken over by the new PCTs. The changes would mean staff currently employed by different organisations, such as district nurses and practice nurses, would work more closely together in the community.

Formal consultation throughout the district started this week, and will include public meetings as well as meetings with health care professionals and other interested groups.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.