THE boss of Watford's health watchdog has criticised the Government for planning the abolition of organisations such as his while failing publicly to recognise the work they do.

Mr Barrie Taylor, chief officer for South West Herts Community Health Council, is unhappy the NHS Plan only mentions CHCs in a paragraph of a chapter on improving patients' say in how the health service works, only to say that they will be dismantled.

'I have spoken to CHCs across the country who applaud the new systems the Government wants to introduce to empower patients, but are unhappy with the lack of thanks for the work of the past 25 years,' said Mr Taylor.

'We have played a massive role in that time in scrutinising health strategically and working with individual patients who have complaints.

'These are the most radical proposals for the shake-up of this service in that time which builds on the work we do.'

Mr Taylor has been chief officer since the inception of the statutory body in south west Hertfordshire in 1974, which has three full-time workers and 24 voluntary members who deal with 250 serious complaints a year and receive hundreds of advice inquiries.

The Government wants to set up various bodies to give patients a bigger voice:

A Patient Advocacy and Liaison Service (PALS) will be established in every hospital trust to support patients with problems or concerns

All NHS Trusts and primary care groups will have to ask patients and carers for their views on the services received

Every local NHS organisation will be required to publish a Patient Prospectus - an annual account of patients' views - and the organisation will have to take action as a result

A Patient Forum will be established in every trust and Primary Care Trust to provide direct input from patients into how local NHS services are run

Patients will have direct representation on every NHS Trust board elected by the forum

Every health authority will establish an independent local advisory forum to provide a sounding board for health priorities and policies, including the Health Improvement Programme

Local government will set up all party, scrutiny committees, which will be able to refer contested major service changes to a new independent panel which can then refer to the Government, as CHCs do now.

Mr Taylor said: 'My concern is it does not say whether the PALs will be independent of the trust. We have been told CHCs will stay in place until March 2002 and I'm sure there is plenty of room for some of our voluntary members to take part. They will be using our expertise to help set them up.'