PLANS to merge Hereford and Worcester Ambulance Service with other trusts serving the West Midlands would dramatically undermine local accountability, Mid Worcestershire MP Peter Luff has said.
The proposal has been outlined in consultation papers - entitled Commissioning a Patient-Led NHS - by the West Midlands Strategic Health Authority which have gone out to councils and MPs.
It would see Hereford and Worcester Ambulance Service merged with Coventry and Warwickshire, West Midlands and Shropshire, and Staffordshire ambulance trusts.
The document states that one trust would allow for management and administrative cost-savings and allow for a broader range of management skills to be brought in.
It also says the need to maintain several call centres is considered important.
The proposals are in the initial stages and there is no indication where the service would be based if it went ahead or what impact it would have.
But Mr Luff said he strongly opposed the move, which he described as a severely retrograde step. He added: "Ambulance Trusts must be accountable to their local communities and the current structure of the trust fulfils that admirably.
"I urge that this proposal is abandoned as local call centres are obviously important, so why change the management structure and identity of the trusts?"
The proposals comes as the Fire Brigade Union is fighting plans to regionalise the fire service - which would see Worcester's fire control centre replaced by a base in Wolverhampton.
Strategic Health Authority communications officer Carolyn Cooper said it was only in the initial stages and people could comment on the plans, which would help form more concrete proposals going out to formal consultation.
Hereford and Worcester ambulance trust spokeswoman Jenny Procter said: "Our response would be around the need for a safe and local ambulance service for people in both counties.
"Obviously we'll be working to get the right answer for patients because that's what it's all about."
Comments can be made to the SHA until Friday, September 16, by writing to Catherine Griffiths at Osprey House, Albert Street, Redditch, B97 4DE or emailing: catherine.griffiths@wm sha.nhs.uk
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