THE new chairman of a health and care watchdog for Blackburn with Darwen has invited his North West peers to a meeting in the borough.

Sir Bill Taylor, recently appointed chairman of HealthWatch, has invited his colleagues to a summit at Blackburn’s Enterprise Centre in Furthergate.

He said: “Many of us find ourselves leading the new local organisation HealthWatch.

“The expectations of and for HealthWatch are high and we need to work out how can we work towards matching those aspirations.

“Every HealthWatch is led by different people, with different funding levels and arrangements, positioned differently in the NHS family and with different staffing structures and organisational relationships.

“I thought it made sense to get together to see how we can help and support one another to better help and support our citizens with their health and social care aspirations.”