BOLTON'S community health care trust is set to celebrate its successes in the company of a Government minister.

Plans are in hand to officially open the new flagship health centre development at Lever Chambers and commend pioneering nurses in the town who now prescribe to patients.

Baroness Cumberledge, Under Parliamentary Secretary of State for Health, will make her second visit to Bolton on August 14, to carry out the ceremony

Patrick Wallace, Chief Executive of Community Healthcare Bolton NHS Trust, said:"I am delighted that Baroness Cumberledge will be visiting Bolton. The opening of the Lever Chamber Centre for Health and nurse prescribing are important landmarks for the Trust. "These developments illustrate the trust's commitment and ability to improve the range and quality of community health services available for the people of Bolton.

"The Trust will now build on these successes and over the next few years seek further improvement to services," he added.

Lever Chambers, the former tax offices on Ashburner Street, came into operation in April after a major refurbishment through the negotiation of a £1.7 million private finance deal.

Under one roof the Trust offers a wide range of mainstream primary and community services and specialist rehabilitation services.

The centre is the first of its kind in the Bolton area but plans are already in hand to develop other similar centres in other parts of the town to provide a comprehensive network of primary care centres where people can access all services under the one roof. In 1994, Bolton was selected as one of eight pilot sites around the country to test the theory behind nurse prescribing. In particular with the nursing team attached to Dr Saul and Partners.

The success of the scheme locally resulted in a borough wide extension which means nurses working in the community are able to prescribe from a limited medical list for their patients.

The majority of such prescriptions are for dressings and incontinence materials. These were previously "off limits" to nurses and meant they had to return to their surgeries for signed prescriptions from doctors, wasting time and causing stress and inconvenience for patients.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.