A HEAD of nursing has been appointed to take charge of a shake-up of services in Darlington.

Linda Bailes, former head of health improvement with Darlington Primary Care Trust, takes over the position at a critical time in the development of the service.

The Government is keen to take care into the community to improve the quality of life for patients and lift some of the burden off hospitals.

The Darlington trust is drawing up a nursing strategy with enhanced roles and responsibilities for community staff, including district nurses, health visitors, school nurses and specialists nurses, healthcare assistants and health visitors.

Mrs Bailes said: "There has never been a better, more exciting and challenging time to be a nurse.

"There are so many innovations, so much we can do for the population and I am really looking forward to taking the service forward.

"It is just like coming home for me as I have had 25 years in the NHS, starting as a nurse. I love nursing and have an absolute passion for it and service development."

She said the plan was to develop services around local need so patients would be at the centre of care.

"By this token, we would be keen to hear from people about what we can do better," she said