People using Bradford's health services are being urged to share their experiences with health watchdogs as part of a growing pioneering project.

The city's Community Health Council is to circulate 20,000 leaflets to doctor's surgeries, hospital wards and chemists asking for comments for the health council's innovative Health Action Link.

The idea of the scheme is to get a picture of exactly what is happening at grass roots level in health services - without the need for patients to become embroiled in formal complaints.

All comments have to give precise details of what happened, where and when - but the health council keeps the name confidential.

And the scheme, which has been running since early 1999, has proved so successful that it has attracted national attention and is now being expanded. Lesley Sterling-Baxter, chief officer, said: "We can show how services have changed because of comments made to us and that's almost unique in the country."

The Health Action Link project has now been chosen by the regional executive of the NHS as a model project for the National Patient Partnership Initiative.

And in the last year, the CHC received fewer formal complaints about health services in the city, with only 110 compared with 203 in the previous 12 months.

The CHC's annual report says: "We believe this is because people now have another avenue for making their voice heard."

Both good and bad examples of health care given by the district's hospital staff, GP surgeries, opticians and pharmacists are invited - with letters of congratulations sent to people who have given good service.

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