CONTROVERSIAL plans to merge Redditch and Bromsgrove Primary Care Trust (PCT) with other trusts were greeted with a resounding "No" by councillors this week.

At a meeting on Monday, Redditch councillors voted unanimously to keep the PCT as it is.

Members discussed consultation documents for proposed changes to PCTs, Strategic Health Authorities (SHA) and the Ambulance Service.

Four options are being offered for the area's PCT, including a Worcestershire-wide body but councillors agreed they would prefer Redditch and Bromsgrove's trust to be kept as it is.

Council Leader Phil Mould said: "The PCT is about service delivery so I think we need it as close as possible.

"When you go into a larger pot things start disappearing away from you. It's so easy for those at the county level to ignore the likes of Redditch."

Liberal Democrat group leader Malcolm Hall lent his support, saying the PCT was doing an excellent job, and Tory group leader Carole Gandy said trusts had not been given enough chance to "bed in" properly.

"When assessed by the Comprehensive Performance Assessment, we were criticised for failing to fully take on our responsibility as a borough for the health of our residents," she said.

"Yet how can we do so in the future when the decision makers who we need to influence and work with are located further and further away."

Members also discussed proposals for the Strategic Health Authority and Ambulance trusts.

The plans would see the West Midlands South SHA, which includes Redditch, merge with Birmingham and the Black Country and Shropshire and Staffordshire - a move hoped to save £7.5 million.

A proposed new West Midlands Ambulance Trust would cover Worcestershire, Herefordshire, West Midlands, Coventry, Warwickshire, Shropshire and Staffordshire.

Councillor Betty Passingham said the county council's health overview and scrutiny committee had agreed the plans, provided the new ambulance trust had a call centre within the area.

But Mrs Gandy dismissed the consultation process as pointless as only one option was on the table for the SHA and the ambulance trust.

"The Government seems obsessed with big is beautiful and the various proposals for amalgamation which have been debated over the last few months make me more convinced than ever that this is regional government by the back door," she said.

"Hereford and Worcester ambulance service has a record of delivering high performance and the document recognises there are fears that creating a new organisation will have a detrimental impact upon performance standards.

"But like West Mercia Police, it is being required to merge with other services in order to supplement the large urban conurbation's of the West Midlands and Birmingham."

Councillors agreed to request visits from representatives from both West Midlands SHA and Hereford and Worcester Ambulance Trust to hear more on the options before making a decision.