NEW chairman Jane Betts of the equally new Strategic Health Authority promised to be a good listener when she visited Buckinghamshire Health Authority.

The SHA, which replaces the county health authorities for Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire, starts work in April and will be based on the outskirts of Oxford.

Mrs Betts, who lives in north Buckinghamshire, said the SHA would look at the big picture. Money would go down from the SHA to the Primary Care Trusts to spend, while the SHA would have the capital budget and be responsible for encouraging the best ways of working.

The three primary care trusts in this area are Wycombe area, Chiltern, South Bucks and Aylesbury Vale. They are in effect mini-health authorities.

Staff at BHA are already leaving or looking for new jobs with the SHA. Finance chief Martin Cutler has gone to Australia to write a book and David Custerson, head of corporate affairs will be working in a new group set up to provide advice to the health trusts in Bucks. Chief executive Jackie Haynes is taking early retirement.