A SINGLE Primary Care Trust for the whole of the county would greatly benefit the health economy, health chiefs in South Worcestershire believe.

At present, there are three Worcestershire PCTs - South Worcestershire, Wyre Forest and Redditch and Bromsgrove - each with responsibility for planning health services.

If they were merged the number of management roles, and therefore management salaries, would be greatly reduced - yet despite this, the chairman of South Worcestershire PCT David Barlow believes it is the right move in the long-run. "The PCTs in Wyre Forest and Redditch and Bromsgrove have working towards becoming a single PCT for the last year or so as Wyre Forest is no longer financially viable on its own," said Mr Barlow. "Yet my colleagues in each of those Trusts still don't believe a single PCT for Worcestershire is the best option whereas I do."

He said the debate centred on concerns that the PCT must be small enough to be locally representative but big enough to have some 'muscle' in decision making.

"We believe that we will get a push towards a single countywide PCT by the Department of Health anyway and it's got to be better to become a single Worcestershire PCT in one go rather than going about it in two steps," he added.