BURY MP Ivan Lewis has suggested to the Government that the local national health service and council social services departments should be merged.

In a speech to the House of Commons he welcomed the way that primary care groups were replacing the divisive GP fundholding system.

And he said: "Health action zones will ensure a more cohesive and integrated approach to the delivery of health and social care.

"All relevant agencies - health services, social services and other local authority services, along with the voluntary sector, are co-operating in the treatment of patients and in the introduction of an ambitious public health strategy for the first time in this country. That is very important."

Further

The Bury North backbencher then told Health Secretary Frank Dobson: "Some Labour MPs would like the Government to go one step further, in line with the recent House of Commons health committee report on the relationship between health and social services.

"The report states that: 'the problems of collaboration between health and social services will not be properly resolved until there is an integrated health and social care system'.

"At least health action zones are a step in the right direction.

"Health problems cannot be solved within the Department of Health or by health ministers alone; there is a broader agenda.

"Social exclusion policies will tackle the root causes of poverty, family breakdown and, ultimately, ill health."

He added: "Gone are the futile policies of the Conservative government, who did not merely ignore but denied the link between poverty and ill health."

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