TWO local women have been appointed to the management team of NHS Direct which covers Greater Manchester, Cheshire and the Wirral.

Tahira Parveen has joined the telephone health helpline as Operations Manager for its five call centres in Bolton, Manchester, Chester and Nantwich.

Tahira, from Worsley, is responsible for call centre performance and quality as well as staff development.

Gail Gregory, from Bolton, has been recruited as Alliance Development Manager and will be improving patient involvement and increasing the public's knowledge of NHS Direct.

The pair are joined by Lynne Parkes, from Chorley, who has been appointed as a nurse manager for the service's Greater Manchester sites. Lynne, who first joined the service as a senior nurse adviser in 1999, is based at Landmark House in Bolton and responsible for nurses in three call centres - Landmark House, Ladybridge Hall and Manchester Royal Infirmary.

She said: "NHS Direct provides an extremely important and valuable service and although it is a different environment to the police, I hope my experience of working in the public sector will be beneficial to my new role in the health service."

She is a former manager for one of emergency control rooms at Greater Manchester Police and is used to life in a busy call centre.

She said: "Although NHS Direct has been running for a few years now, there are still certain communities who do not realise the benefits it can have, such as the elderly and those from ethnic minorities. It will be my job to make sure all these groups know exactly what NHS Direct offers."