A NEW wave of local NHS jobs are to disappear following the closure of the Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority.

The strategic health authority, based in Cowley, has merged with strategic health authorities in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, as part of a reorganisation of the NHS in the South-East.

But it emerged this week that the 250 staff employed by the three health authorities is to be cut to 123.

The former Thames Valley SHA, based at Jubilee House on the Oxford Business Park, had employed 112. Now with staff in the process of having to apply for jobs with the new South Central Strategic authority in Newbury, it is feared Oxfordshire employees will be badly hit.

A spokesman for South Central Strategic Health Authority said: "The aim is to keep any redundancies to a minimum.

"Staff previously employed by Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority who are not appointed into South Central SHA will be fully supported to find alternative jobs."

All staff have been guaranteed employment until the end of March.

It is now believed that the newly-created Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust is seeking to move into Jubilee House, with no let-up in the pace of change in the restructuring of the local health service.

The primary care trust has itself come into being as a result of a merger, bringing together the five primary care trusts in Oxfordshire formed in 2002 to oversee community services like GPs and dentists. The merger will result in reductions in staffing levels.

The new PCT must also deliver £18m of savings by March 2007. To help bring down staff costs by £4.2m there will be a 13 per cent reduction in managerial staff and a 6.5 per cent reduction in clinical jobs.