A NEW health boss for Blackburn and Darwen said she was looking forward to the "challenge" of encouraging residents to become more healthy.

Former nurse Judith Holbrey, the new chief executive of Blackburn with Darwen NHS Primary Care Trust, said she felt "privileged" to be given the job.

She said she was determined to improve the widespread poor health suffered by many people in the borough.

The PCT is charged with getting people to live healthier lives and decides which NHS hospitals patients from the borough should be treated at. Blackburn with Darwen has low life expectancy and high levels of obesity, smoking and alcohol consumption.

Mrs Holbrey, who lives in Chorley, said: "I see it as a job to be done.

"It is a challenge but I think it is one that we can achieve by all working together - and I include the public in that."

And she pledged not to waste taxpayers' cash and see the PCT slide into debt like other authorities, which include East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust.

She said: "There are difficult choices sometimes.

"What we have got to do is demonstrate to the public that we are making the best and most efficient use of the money available to us."

Mrs Holbrey also said she would not tolerate hospital failures to combat MRSA.

She said it was "unacceptable" for patients to get the bug through dirty wards.

Cases can also occur in community services run by the PCT such as GP surgeries, home visitors and dentists.

She said infections such as MRSA were "unacceptable if you don't take every step to minimise the infection".

But Mrs Holbrey said it would be difficult to stop cases where a person had picked up the infection outside.

She said: "I don't think you could ever eradicate it or rule it out altogether.

"It would be the wrong measure to say zero cases should be the result.

"That is always going to be difficult because so many infections exist in the community".

Mrs Holbrey also pledged to ensure people could get a dentist.

She said: "People should be able to access good dental care and in the same way people should be able to access good quality primary care.

"We need to make sure that where gaps exist that we continue to work to make sure that people do have access to NHS dental care."

The 52-year-old began her career in the NHS as a nurse and has been in management since 1993.

Mrs Holbrey began work last week at the PCT.

Her last job was chief executive of the Five Borough Partnership NHS Trust, a mental health authority which covers Halton, Knowsley, St Helens, Warrington and Wigan and Leigh.

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