WORRIED Asians in Bolton say the town's health service will become "racially imbalanced" if two medical officers lose their jobs.

The claim comes just days after the BEN reported that two clinical medical officers employed by the Community Healthcare Trust are to lose their jobs.

Trust bosses refused to identify the officers saying the proposed reductions had been taken after a review and reflected national trends.

But Forhad Uddin Ahmed, chairman of the Bolton Bangladesh Association, says Asians will lose out if the doctors - both believed to be Asian women - are made redundant. The group has sent letters to Bolton MPs and health chiefs urging them to keep the two posts open at the Bolton Child Health Care Unit. And later this week they intend to make representations to the Health Secretary about the rumoured redundancies.

Mr Ahmed said: "These two doctors have the advantage of speaking Asian languages. Asian people in this country get less than the deserving levels of NHS facilities.

"That's because Asians are less health conscious, there's a lack of communication due to language difficulties and most importantly they are not aware of the general facilities provided by the NHS.

"These two doctors have been working with this community for a very long time, especially with the Asian families.

"This is a slap in the face for 25,000 Asians in Bolton and it makes for a racially imbalanced situation."

Yesterday the Community Healthcare Trust stressed that the review had been undertaken correctly and in consultation with the British Medical Association.

A spokesman added: "At no time during the review were objections raised to the proposed reduction in clinical medical officers on the grounds of ethnicity.

"Community Healthcare Bolton would welcome the opportunity to discuss with the Bangladesh Association or any other local community the Trust's on-going commitment to working with ethnic minority groups to enhance the accessibility and responsiveness of community health services."

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