A taskforce of NHS staff and social workers has been set up to discuss the future of community health care in Oxfordshire.

The move follows proposals by the newly launched Thames Valley Health Authority to reorganise the county's five primary care trusts, which were set up in April last year and are responsible for GPs, district nurses and community hospitals.

News of the scheme caused criticism from doctors, PCT members and MPs.

They claimed it would cause more upheaval for staff and patients, who have already seen the county health authority and community health trust wound down within the last 18 months.

A conference to discuss the plans, which included staff from all Oxfordshire's NHS organisations, decided to set up the working group to review the situation in more detail.

It is due to publish a report at the end of July.

A TVHA spokesman said: "It has been given the task of looking at all the options and evidence for and against any changes to the county's PCTs. "It will come back with a report with preliminary recommendations."

TVHA was established in April to oversee the NHS in Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Bucking- hamshire.

At its first board meeting, chief executive Nick Relph revealed proposals to reconfigure the PCTs -- Oxford City, Cherwell Vale, South East, North East and South West Oxfordshire.

He said having five separate PCTs "watered down" the system, and some of the organisations were too small. He suggested reducing the number to three.

Following the conference last week he said in a memo that a "well balanced" case was necessary because any changes could entail a "substantial investment of time, effort and other resource". Banbury MP Tony Baldry, who claimed the town's Horton Hospital could be at risk if patients were transferred to PCTs in Northamptonshire, welcomed the taskforce.

He said: "I am pleased that Nick Relph has seen common sense over this ludicrous idea of a reconfiguration."

As a result of the new task group, South Oxfordshire District Council's scrutiny committee has decided to review the current PCT arrangements and consider possible changes.