Health service alterations will be discussed at local meeting

YOU have a chance to have your say on sweeping changes affecting health services at a public meeting in Ely. The event is being organised at The Maltings in Ship Lane on Wednesday between 6.45pm and 8.45pm. Residents are invited to find out more about cha

YOU have a chance to have your say on sweeping changes affecting health services at a public meeting in Ely.

The event is being organised at The Maltings in Ship Lane on Wednesday between 6.45pm and 8.45pm.

Residents are invited to find out more about changes affecting East Cambridgeshire and Fenland Primary Care Trust, the Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire Strategic Health Authority and the East Anglian Ambulance Trust.

The meeting is being organised by the strategic health authority as the Government rolls out its Commissioning a Patient-Led NHS proposals which could see Cambridgeshire's primary care trusts merge.

The closing date for the public to have a say on the consultations is March 22.

Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire Strategic Health Authority deputy chief executive, Lindsay MacIntyre, said: "The consultation is not about 'how' and 'where' services are provided but about reducing the cost of administration and management in the NHS. This is a national pledge by the Government to reduce NHS costs in the UK by £250 million.

"Patients should not notice any immediate difference to local healthcare services as a result of this consultation. Frontline staff providing health and social care will continue to deliver services as they do now."

n For more information about Commissioning a Patient-Led NHS visit www.nscsha.nhs.uk or phone 01223 597567 for copies of the consultation documents.