‘We must oppose regionalisation of the NHS by the back door’

And they especially dislike the idea of getting rid of Two Shires Ambulance Trust and replacing it with a much bigger organisation.

At Monday's meeting of Wycombe District Council's cabinet, Audrey Jones said this meant loss of local control in the interests of regionalisation.

"Local knowledge is absolutely critical," she said.

And at a meeting of the county council-led health scrutiny committee, member David Rowlands said: "We should oppose this regionalisation or sub-regionalisation by the back door. It is happening with the police, the ambulance service, to fire and to local government."

Both groups of councillors were talking about their responses to the Government's proposed NHS reorganisation. The changes must save the NHS £250million nationally on management costs, or 15 per cent. That means £19million in Thames Valley and £1million in Bucks, which will come from job losses as organisations merge.

The changes include:

- Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority, which oversees government health strategies in Bucks, Berks and Oxfordshire, would disappear into a sub-regional body.

- The three primary care trusts (PCT), Wycombe, Chiltern South Bucks and Vale of Aylesbury, which buy health services, would merge. In Thames Valley there will be one PCT each in Bucks and Oxfordshire, two in Berkshire and one in Milton Keynes.

- Two Shires Ambulance Trust will be split and the Bucks and Milton Keynes section will join with Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Hampshire.

The Two Shires board says existing ambulance trusts are too small to give managers the time to plan for dealing with major incidents and service improvements. The Government says change will deliver more money for front line services.

Both groups of councillors reluctantly support the first two changes, but not the ambulance change. The health scrutiny committee says it would prefer an ambulance service based on Thames Valley boundaries.

Consultation ends on March 22.