Ilkley may benefit from extra nurses if the Airedale Primary Group is granted trust status, its chief executive has claimed.

Kevin Ellis said the Airedale Primary Care Group, which includes surgeries based in Ilkley, Addingham and Burley-in-Wharfedale, said trust status would allow greater financial freedom and free up nursing staff to spend more time performing the skilled tasks they are trained to carry out.

Mr Ellis said the Primary Care Group at present was a sub committee of the Bradford Health Authority.

He said independence would allow a newly-formed trust to control its own finances. "At present we do not have the power to employ people," he told Ilkley parish council's open meeting.

Mr Ellis said he was keen to free up district nurses, health visitors and school nurses to concentrate on actual treatment, with other staff becoming responsible for the administration and paper work, and the most basic of treatments.

"At the moment, nurses do spend more time than is appropriate doing paperwork and work that someone of a lower grade could do," said Mr Ellis.

He said it was important to establish how the trust could make the best and most appropriate use of its existing staff.

He said former NHS staff who had dropped out of the profession would be encouraged back to make use of their skills.

The Airedale PCG will become a trust on October 1 this year, providing the Secretary of State for Health approves the application, and there is considerable support from the communities affected.

Ilkley, Addingham and Burley-in-Wharfedale residents will have an opportunity to express their views at a public meeting in Ilkley, the date of which will be announced shortly.

Consultation would be a mixture of questionnaires involving people in focus groups, he said.

The new-look board of a trust must have lay representatives from the community, one of which must be from Wharfedale.

The secretary of state must make his decision known by July. If he agrees, an establishment order will be issued and Primary Care Group would become a trust on October 1.

Coun Kate Brown, chairman of Ilkley Parish Council, said: " We hope the service improves and that not too much will be spent on administration.

For further information about the consultation process contact the Airedale PCG headquarters at 3 Gale Street, Keighley, West Yorkshire, BD21 3AT, tel 01535 690416.

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