PATIENTS in Bolton may be given a bigger say in the way their hospital is run, with the launch of a Government scheme encouraging more accountability in the NHS.

Despite the town already having a high-powered complaints team -- a major coup for Bolton earlier this year, the Government has announced further plans to make sure patients get their voices heard.

If the proposals are passed in the Commons, Voice will be a new body at the health authority to encourage all people, not just patients, to air their views on the NHS.

The Royal Bolton Hospital has admitted that the health service needs to find better ways of involving and informing patients and will be following the Government plans carefully.

The new proposals will work alongside the PALS scheme -- Patient Advocacy Liasion Service -- which was set up at the Royal Bolton Hospital in the spring.

The hospital was among the first in Britain to establish the scheme, which smoothes the complaints process for disgruntled patients.

The £52,000 scheme, one of eight in the North-west, has a team manning an information desk at the Minerva Road hospital seven days a week.

But health watchdog the Community Health Council has expressed doubts about the scheme, claiming the Government has not consulted them fully.

Donna Covey, director of the Association of Community Health Councils for England and Wales, said: "On an issue as crucial as the future of patient and public representation in the NHS, we would have hoped the Government would see fit to conduct a full and open public consultation.

"We will be consulting our members about the proposals."

Community health councils are key players in the complaints procedure, but are to be abolished under the Government plans.

The association is worried that the new complaints system will not have any lay members and fears that people will no longer have a one-stop shop for their grievances.

A Royal Bolton Hospital spoksman said: "There is room to improve the complaints system and in Bolton we have already started to address that.

"We are a pilot site for the introduction of the PALS scheme and have appointed an officer who will be setting up new systems.

"However, we do hope the excellent work of the CHCs will not be lost. We have valued the constructive way in which they have helped us in the past to improve services for patients."