STAFF shortages in the TB service covering East Lancashire have left patients with a skeleton service which is only able to cope with emergencies, health watchdogs have claimed.

Organisers hope the service for Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale will be staffed with two specialist nurses in the next few months.

It was without any dedicated staff for most of December, according to Frank Clifford, chairman of the Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale Community Health Council and only had one nurse for several months before that.

But organisers of the new Blackburn-based TB service, which became an East Lancashire-wide service from January 1, say it will not be long before it becomes as efficient as the service which covered the Blackburn area with a clinical nurse specialist, two nurse specialists and a clerk.

East Lancashire has the 11th highest TB rate in the country.

Most recent figures available show that both areas in East Lancashire had similar numbers of cases, with each area in 2000 having around 110 cases, of which none were children.

Mr Clifford said: "For the last 11 years that I have been leading the CHC I have been concerned that our service here in Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale is not managed as well as the one in Blackburn.

"I am obviously delighted now that this is going to be an East Lancashire-wide service.

"However, I have my reservations. Having had only one nurse covering the area for quite a while, there is an awful lot of work the Blackburn team has got to do to catch up with Blackburn.

"I want to be sure that there is sufficient staff recruited for the Burnley unit to make the service as effective as it has been for years in Blackburn."

The staff shortages meant emergency cases were treated, but preventative measures, which have been so successful in Blackburn, including vaccinating at-risk children at birth, had to be put on hold.

Organisers of the service first suggested the TB and meningitis service for both areas should merge to cover the whole of the area ten years ago.

The service in Blackburn has been run since 1980 by clinical director Professor Peter Ormerod , a national authority on TB who has advised the Government on the issue.