A NEW body with a £90m budget now has the power to deliver a full range of community services in Darlington.

On Monday, Darlington Primary Care Trust arose out of the ashes of the former primary care group established three years ago, freeing up the Memorial Hospital to concentrate on its own patient care.

The chief executive is Colin Morris, former director of social services at Darlington Borough council. He said: "This is just a line in the sand. The group had been making changes and a lot of the leg work had already been done.

"We will run a lot of the community services, including district and health nursing staff, but there will be an overlap in some areas.

"We have to ensure that overlaps don't become a gulf that people fall into.

"All the services have been shifted across and we hope we have achieved a seamless transfer."

Referring to his former social services role, he added: "We share so much of the same sort of business that in some senses, the demarcation line is artificial."

Sandra Pollard is the trust chairman, who served on the old PCG from its inception. She said: "In the long term I would like to see health inequalities improved and ironed out in Darlington. People always think it is a prosperous place but there are two deprived wards in our area."

She feels particularly strongly about preventative medicine and believes everyone should have the same access to the best possible treatment.

"The whole point about the PCT is it is geared towards the people in the area rather than national contracts. We should be able to deal with specific Darlington problems."

Dr Richard Harker is the chairman of the professional executive committee which represents GPs, dentists, opticians and other health specialists on the trust.. He chaired the former PCG.

He stressed: "This is about the fifth merger of organisations since I joined the NHS and if PCTs don't work, I don't know what the way forward is. We have got to make it function in Darlington.

"Life expectancy for a male living in Central ward is 70, compared with 81 in Mowden. So your health depends on where you live. That is something we want to improve."

* Meet the team: Page 4