Health care in Oxfordshire will never improve if ministers fiddle around with management structures, according to Dr Evan Harris.

The Liberal Democrat health spokesman and MP for Oxford West and Abingdon said more beds, doctors and nurses and money were the only answers to better patient care.

His comments follow NHS plans to merge Oxfordshire Health Authority with Berkshire and Buckinghamshire from next April to create a Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority covering 2.5m patients.

Dr Evan HarrisDr Harris said: "I am opposed to NHS reorganisation. What it doesn't need is more structural change. It needs more beds, more nurses and doctors and more cash.

"All the arguments for bigger-is-better are irrelevant when the Government is trying to decentralise power.

"No-one ever complains to me about management organisation in the NHS - ministers need to stop fiddling round with structures and start improving services."

The NHS watchdog, Oxfordshire Community Health Council, has also expressed concern about the changes, which also involve plans to merge Oxfordshire Ambulance Trust with its partners in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire.

Chairman Linda Watson said: "We are very concerned that the speed with which the system as a whole is being expected to accommodate such change is unrealistic.

"Whatever the verdict on the proposed restructuring of the ambulance service we feel that now is not the right time to be changing it."

The new TVSHA is due to be launched in April next year, if ministers approve the plans after a public consultation. It is being formed to make services more "patient centred".

At present, Oxfordshire Health Authority oversees county health care, including hospital and ambulance trusts, and primary care trusts (PCTs) - responsible for community-based care, like GPs, dentists and district nursing.

The Department of Health wants PCTs to take on more responsibility for its patients, while TVSHA will head strategic development.

In a consultation document, the DoH states: "For too long, patients and the public have had little say in the way in which their local health services are managed.

"The creation of a strategic health authority provides the opportunity to develop health and social care services which are determined by local priorities and which are truly centred."

Anyone who would like to know more about the Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority consultation process can write to Free Post TVSHA, email stbop.feedback@oxon-ha.anglox.nhs.uk, or fax 01865 226726.

A series of public meetings have also been scheduled to discuss the new organisation, and details are available by visiting the website www.tvha.nhs.uk.