CAMPAIGNERS have called on health bosses to give local people their say on the future of a Pendle clinic.

Councillors and the area's Community Health Council fear services currently provided at the Butts Clinic, Barnoldswick, will gradually be transferred to the Barnoldswick Medical Practice in nearby Park Road without people being properly consulted about the contentious move.

Now Frank Clifford, chairman of Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale CHC has called on East Lancashire Health Authority and Burnley Health Care NHS Trust to get together and draw up a blueprint for the future of health services in the town and put the proposals out to public consultation as soon as possible.

Previously doctors referred patients to the clinic which provides services such as chiropody, ante-natal care and hearing tests. But over the years the trend has been to amalgamate GPs and clinics under the same roof in health centres. Although land in Rainhall Road has been earmarked as a site for a proposed new health centre, there is no prospect of the cash being available to build it and doctors at the Park Road surgery have been expanding their premises to create space for clinic services to be provided there.

The problem, say campaigners, is that although they have no complaints about the surgery, it has been created from a row of terrace cottages which creates access difficulties rather than being a purpose-built modern health centre.

A meeting between councillors and health officials at the end of March was told that even if the surgery was extended into the last remaining cottage on the row, councillors had doubts there would be sufficient space to accommodate all the services currently provided at The Butts.

David Meakin, deputy chief executive of the Trust, said: "It's the Trust's view that services could be fitted in if the last property was taken up. "People attending the surgery would use different entrances depending upon which service they were using rather than trailing through the row. There's a lot of sense in having GPs and the services for patients on one site and it is more convenient for patients."

"They are quietly winding down The Butts," said Mr Clifford. "There is still no clear message we can take to the West Craven community and consult with them on. The CHC is very concerned about this issue.

"There needs to be a specific set of proposals to take to people to allow them to have their say on a very important matter.

"We, like the council's area committee, are incredibly frustrated that we don't have a set of clear proposals to take to the community. It's happening by stealth without an overall plan."

Mr Meakin pointed out that any consultation would be carried out by the health authority and the area's primary care group rather than the Trust, although it would have an input.

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