A SHAKE-UP of community health services could launch next year.

NHS Lewisham, the area’s primary care trust (PCT), will no longer run community health services in the borough.

Under new NHS rules, community health sevices such as walk-in centres and sexual health clinics need to be removed from PCT control.

In the first move of its kind, Lewisham services will be incorporated into the Lewisham Hospital NHS Trust.

This process is now subject to approval by the Department of Health’s cooperation and competition panel and could be completed by next April.

Chairman of Lewisham Hospital Bala Gnanapragasam said: “The new integrated healthcare organisation will enable us to provide a seamless service to our patients from primary through to secondary and specialist care, overcoming any organisational barriers.”