OXFORDSHIRE'S into a single giant trust in a massive reorganisation of health care.

All of the county's health services will be delivered by Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust from October 1.

At the moment, health services are delivered by five PCTs Oxford City, Cherwell Vale, South East, South West, and North East Oxfordshire PCTs.

The restructuring was announced along with the merger of Oxfordshire Ambulance trust with those of Berkshire, Hampshire and most of Buckinghamshire.

The new "super" ambulance group, due to start work on July 1, will be known as the South Central Ambulance Service NHS Trust. A joint statement issued by all five PCT's said: "Services to patients will not be adversely affected. All front-line staff will be moved across to the new organisation. There will be a restructuring of personnel at director level as the three management teams become one."

Andrew Smith, Labour MP for Oxford East said: "I shall be watching like a hawk to make sure they don't re-open the earlier proposal to privatise its commissioning responsibilities.

"The ambulance merger may prove more contentious, but the Oxfordshire Ambulance Trust have assured me that they will be able to continue to improve services and retain a local centre of operations."

Henley MP Boris Johnson said the "churn of reform" could not disguise the real problems facing the NHS in Oxfordshire.

He said: "What's amazing is that we are having to sack frontline staff while community hospitals historic, much-loved institutions are threatened with closure."

The Government said reducing England's 303 primary care trusts to 152 would make annual savings of £250 million for reinvestment in frontline services.

The number of ambulance trusts in England will be reduced from the current 29 to just 12.