YOUR health service needs you. That is the message from the newly-formed Patient and Public Involvement in Health Forums.

There are two in Herefordshire, one linked to Hereford Hospitals Trust, the other to the Primary Care Trust.

Their job is to scrutinise the work of both trusts and to advise them on ways that the local community want health services to meet their needs. Both trusts need 10 members by the end of March, eventually growing to 20.

The Government is promoting the new independent forums to encourage both patients and the public to have their say about issues in their communities.

Shelagh Callaghan is the Herefordshire Project Co-ordinator and has confirmed that both forums have now elected a chairman.

For the Primary Care Trust it is Allan Lloyd from Kington, the last chairman of Herefordshire Community Health Council, and for the Hospital Trust it is Jackie Boys, from Hereford.

Both want forums to be representative of the whole community and are urging people from minority groups or those with interests in such things as mental health or diabetes to put their names forward.

Anyone interested should contact Shelagh Callaghan on 01432 354975 or write to her at the Fred Bulmer Centre, Wall Street, Hereford, HR4 9HP.