A CONSULTATION on hospital closures was branded a shambles today after a health boss's wife was presented as a patient in a public information film.

The DVD is used a public meetings to help inform people about the proposals and campaigners said it was not right that the wife of the vice-chairman appeared in the film to praise the plans.

Bosses at East Lancashire NHS Trust said they were "completely unaware" of the "coincidental" connection after it was pointed out to them by The Evening Telegraph.

And they pledged that at future meetings they will let people know that the "patient" was in fact Sarika Passi, the wife of the vice-chairman, Pradeep Passi.

In the 15-minute film, already seen by hundreds of residents, Mrs Passi backs moves by health chiefs to have more babies born in midwife-led birthing centres.

This means complicated births would only happen at either Queen's Park Hospital Blackburn or Burnley General Hospital.

But Mrs Passi, whose husband is a non-executive director on the trust management board, says in the film: "It's about putting the options back to women.

"It is about normalising birth again. It's not a medical treatment."

She also says: "I think just the option of having hospital births is totally appropriate because for some people, yeah, that's rightt.

"Personally, from my viewpoint, my first childbirth I knew that I would only have ever wanted it in hospital because it felt like a safe environment."

John Amos, vice-chairman of the Patient and Public Involvement Forum, an official watchdog which oversees the trust, said it was a "real blunder".

He added: "I have no doubt that a great number of people will see this as a conspiracy."

Coun Tony Humphrys, chairman of Blackburn with Darwen Council's health scrutiny committee, said: "People are already sceptical as it is.

"They think the consult-ation is a done deal."

Leader of Burnley Council Gordon Birtwistle said: "The whole thing shows what a shambles the consultation is and the depths that they will sink to get approval."

Today the trust's chief executive, Jo Cubbon, said: "The fact that one of the contributors is married to one of our non-executive directors is completely coincidental.

"The panel members and those presenting the DVD at the public meetings were in fact completely unaware of this connection.

"It also wasn't picked up as an issue by anyone involved in producing the DVD.

"Clearly everyone has the right to speak about their experience as an NHS patient and the involvement of Mrs Passi was in her own right as a service user.

"However with hindsight we should have recognised that this connection may have been an issue of concern for some people."

Mrs Passi, who lives with her husband in the Beardwood area of Blackburn, declined to comment.

But her husband said: "I don't think it is a conflict of interest.

"She has given her perspective as a user of the services."