A CHAIRMAN has been appointed to head the new health trust which will be formed when Blackburn and Burnley hospitals merge next year.

Businesswoman Christine Kirk, who has chaired Calderstones NHS Trust for the last 10 years, will become chairman of East Lancashire Hospitals Trust.

The new trust will remain in a "shadow" form until it officially comes into being next April when Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley and Burnley healthcare trusts formally merge.

Both trusts were given the top-rated three-star status in the last government league tables.

Mrs Kirk said: "I feel honoured to become the first chair of the new East Lancashire Hospitals Trust and will work as hard as I did at Calderstones with as much dedication as I can.

"This is a real opportunity to develop a high quality service and carry on the excellent work each trust has done."

Mrs Kirk, lives in the Ribble Valley and is married with two grown-up sons, will be responsible for creating the new trust board, bringing in executive and non-executive directors.

Succeeding Mrs Kirk at Calderstones trust is Graham Parr, currently a non-executive director of Burnley Healthcare Trust.

He has 36 years experience working with the NHS - 25 years spent as director of estates for the former Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley Health Authority.

Kath Reade, chairman of Cumbria and Lancashire Strategic Health Authority, which has overall responsibility for all health trusts in its area, said: "I know that Christine Kirk and Graham Parr are both dedicated to improving health care for the people of Blackburn and Burnley and am really pleased that two high-performing health trusts will be in the hands of people of such high calibre with long experience of successful work in the NHS."