THE Lancashire Evening Telegraph has joined forces with health bosses to give you the chance to ask the questions you want answering over a massive hospital shake-up.

We want to hear exactly what you want to know about the biggest change in the NHS services which has ever taken place in East Lancashire.

Send us your questions and we will give the 10 best to chiefs at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust for senior doctors and managers to answer through the paper.

This is your chance to ask how the changes will affect you. Perhaps you are planning on having children and want to know where it is likely you will have your baby or maybe you have a long-standing health problem that needs regular hospital check-ups.

A raft of changes are guaranteed under two options at the centre of the consultation and the proposals have caused widespread protests.

These include most pre-booked operations being moved from Blackburn's Queen's Park Hospital to Burnley General Hospital.

Burnley, meanwhile, will lose its blue light A&E services, which make up about 20 per cent of emergency admissions.

These will have to be seen at Queen's Park, where a major extension opens next month to take on Blackburn Royal Infirmary's services.

The only choice is between which hospital gets to keep key birthing services.

Despite 220,000 homes in East Lancashire being sent a consultation document only about 850 people 0.2 per cent of the population have responded .

Val Bertenshaw, who is leading the consultation for the Trust, said: "We welcome this opportunity for dialogue with the public and feel that it will help to clarify issues that people are concerned about.

"We want to ensure that anyone with an interest in health care has an opportunity to give their views about the proposals.

"This is a further way in which members of the public can raise questions and receive informed responses from managers and clinicians who are involved in the review of local health services."

John Amos, vice chairman of the Patient and Public Involvement Forum watchdog which oversees the Trust, said:"I welcome this initiative and I hope it will get people to raise some important questions.

"This is a huge shake-up, it is the biggest change we have seen since the NHS was formed in 1948."

Send your questions to Hospital Questions, Lancashire Evening Telegraph, Newspaper House, High Street, Blackburn, BB1 1HT, to arrive no later than Thursday, June 22.

For more information on the consultation visit www.eastlancs.nhs.uk or call 01254 293855.