PATIENTS in Eastleigh are to be given the chance to have their say on plans to shake up the borough's frontline health services.

Health bosses backing the proposal to reshape Eastleigh's primary care provision by 2002 have pledged a massive consultation exercise will be carried out before it is set in stone.

A number of public meetings will be held next summer ahead of the Southampton and South West Hampshire scheme, which will see all of the borough's patients - and those in Romsey - joined under one umbrella group.

Local authorities, partner organisations, MPs, voluntary groups and patient representatives will also be consulted before the proposal is put before the Secretary of State for Health for final clearance.

A spokeswoman for the health authority said: "The primary care trust covering Eastleigh will be formed by March 2002. Eastleigh's southern parishes will become part of the Eastleigh and Romsey primary care trust, making it co-terminous with the boundaries of the local authorities.

"Consultation will take place in the summer or autumn before that. Consultation for the New Forest PCT took place this summer and that saw ten public meetings held."

The opportunity to speak out against the plans will be welcomed by elderly residents in those southern parishes who have already made their opposition clear.

Members of Eastleigh Southern Parishes Older People's Forum have urged all patients in its catchment area, who currently fall within Southampton East Healthcare's boundaries, to put their views across.

Honorary secretary Diane Andrewes said: "We are told there is to be formal public consultation before the secretary of state decides. Let us make sure that he knows what we think before he makes his decision."