A DOCTOR is urging people to take an active interest in the running of their health service.

Dr Henry Waters is chairman of the Middlesbrough and Eston Primary Care Group. Residents are being invited to attend a meeting of the group's board on Teesside today, and to ask questions of the professionals at the end of the meeting.

Primary care groups bring together local GPs, nurses, health care workers, social services and potential patients to identify, plan and buy local services to meet health needs.

Dr Waters said: "We do our best to make sure that our meetings are welcoming and interesting to the public and that they can learn something of the way decisions are made in the NHS.

"This is an opportunity for local people to come along and learn more about how the National Health Service operates at a local level and we hope they will take advantage of it.''

Among the items for discussion are health improvement programmes for Middlesbrough and for Redcar and Cleveland. The meeting is at Poole House, Stokesley Road, Nunthorpe, starting at 2pm.