A RADICAL shake-up of the NHS will shut county services and lead to privatisation, city councillors will tell the Government.

Labour-run Oxford City Council has passed a motion hitting out at moves to give NHS cash to GPs instead of primary care trusts like NHS Oxfordshire.

They say county services have recently improved and ‘a radical shake-up may put this all at risk’.

The Government wants private providers to compete for NHS cash.

The motion says this ‘will increase privatisation and fragmentation of our NHS, leading to local services closing’.

It expresses concerns about job losses and the ‘billions’ spent on it and staff time could be be ‘better used on patient care’.

The reforms would see GPs form consortiums to decide where most of the county’s £630m NHS budget is spent. Ministers say private firms will increase competition, driving up standards.

But the motion says the NHS must be first in the queue as a ‘preferred provider’. It says the council will hold a public debate on the plans.

Labour’s Ben Lloyd-Shogbesan, a councillor for Lye Valley, who put forward the motion, said: “We feel the NHS has improved in recent years and is concerned a radical shake-up may put this all at risk.

“We want the Government to think again on the loss of PCT services and jobs.

“The billions of pounds this will cost, as well as the time of NHS staff, would be better used for local care.”

Dr Joe McManners, a GP and Labour councillor for Wood Farm, added: “We’re concerned the White Paper, as it is presented now, will increase privatisation and fragmentation of our NHS, and will lead to local services closing.”

In August, Unison, the UK’s largest public service union, failed in a legal bid to stop the changes, claiming it had not consulted the public.

Last night, a Department of Health spokesman said the formal consultation on the white paper ended on October 11, but all letters sent to Health Secretary Andrew Lansley will be responded to within 20 working days.

Spokesman Jane Garvan added: “We are carefully considering the 6,000 responses received and will publish our response in due course.”

Launching the shake-up, Mr Lansley said: “With patients empowered to share in decisions about their care, with professionals free to tailor services around their patients and with a relentless focus on continuously improving results, I am confident that together we can deliver the efficiency and the improvement in quality that is required to make the NHS a truly world-class service.”