CONSULTATION has started on the future shape and management of the NHS in Kent and Medway.

The 14-week consultation has been launched by the county’s strategic health authority and will help the Secretary of State for Health make decisions about the number of primary care trusts and strategic health authorities there should be. At the same time proposals to improve ambulance services are also being consulted on.

Marianne Griffiths, chief executive of Kent and Medway Strategic Health Authority, said: "The last five years have produced the biggest improvements the NHS has seen in decades, thanks to the hard work of thousands of staff and record funding."

She said it was now time to move on to the next round of improvements. Next year a system of planning and paying for people’s healthcare, based in GP practices, will be introduced.

"That means we need to change how the NHS is structured and managed, making it fit for this purpose," she added.

Consultation documents outlining the options for new PCTs and SHA arrangements and a national document about ambulance service changes are being distributed this week and can be downloaded from www.kentandmedway.nhs.uk.

Responses can be made through the website, by email, by Freepost, by phone or by fax before March 22.