A HEALTH group set up to give patients a voice says it hopes to unite different organisations across Darlington as part of its new role.

Darlington LINk, which works with healthcare bodies to represent the views of patients across the town, is to become the borough's HealthWatch branch.

Proposals for HealthWatch are contained in the Government's white paper on NHS reform.

Their role will be much larger then that of the LINk and will involve direct involvement with the commissioning of services.

Michelle Thompson, who is a volunteer with Darlington HealthWatch, said: "This is a fantastic opportunity for us.

"A s LINk, we have done an awful lot for the people of Darlington.

"A s HealthWatch, we can now do an awful lot more.

"We will be working alongside the commissioning authorities and telling them what the people want from their NHS.

"It's the Big Society in action and we just hope it works.

"It seems to make perfect sense. What the people of Darlington need is going to be very different from what the people of Buckinghamshire need.

"It follows that local people should be deciding on the services their town needs to be delivered."

The organisation is hoping to amalgamatemany existing groups across the town.

"Darlington has lots of groups doing lots of great work, butmore often than not we do not communicate, " said Mrs Thompson.

"Under the HealthWatch umbrella, we can all work together to make the services on offer better for the people of the town.

"We have looked atmany of the issues facing our town, including the huge disparity of life expectancy between the most and least affluent areas.

"We can now tell GPs what people need because we have spent time with them and spoken to them to find out."

The organisation was responsible for getting more training for GPs in Darlington to better deal with patients with learning difficulties.

It also recently carried out a survey of service users to see which mental health services should be re-commissioned.

"We are an organisation with teeth. We have legislation behind us so we can really make a difference and have our voice heard, " said Mrs Thompson.

"When we become HealthWatch, we will have more power and a bigger voice. We want people to get in touch with us and tell us how they think the health services in Darlington can be improved.

"The more people involved, the bigger our voice."