OXFORDSHIRE union leaders have claimed a radical overhaul of the county’s health system will waste public money and lead to the privatisation of the NHS.

In July, new health secretary Andrew Lansley revealed plans to reform the NHS to parliament in a White Paper.

At the moment NHS Oxfordshire, the county’s Primary Care Trust, foots the bill when a resident needs medical care or hospital treatment.

But, according to plans outlined by the new health secretary, millions of pounds of government money will instead be handed to local GPs for care.

The GPs would form “consortia” responsible for commissioning care for Oxfordshire residents.

And by 2013, the country’s primary care trusts, including NHS Oxfordshire, would be axed.

Most of the country’s Strategic Health Authorities, responsible for primary care trusts, would also be dissolved.

The paper, Equity and excellence, Liberating the NHS was discussed at County Hall on Thursday.

Unison Health Oxfordshire spokesman, Mark Ladbrooke, said although the paper was billed as an effort to reduce bureaucracy in the health service, it could end up increasing it.

He said: “The union’s point of view is that the white paper includes a number of changes that did not feature in either the Conservative or Liberal Democrat manifesto.

“There was never any talk of completely abolishing PCTs.

“The PCT in Oxfordshire is responsible for about a billion pounds of public money, and that’s roughly the same across the country.

“You have to ask yourself, how this will work?

“What are doctors going to do, hop out in between treating patients to sign a cheque for a couple of million pounds?

“What will happen is the GPs will either have to stop doing their jobs of treating patients, or they will bring in private companies to do the work, such as accountancy, which many of them are not qualified in, for them.”

Union Health Oxfordshire is now calling for a public consultation on the White Paper, and has written to the county’s district council to offer its help in setting up an engagement programme.

Mr Ladbrooke said: “While the union may not think the paper is a good idea, what the council should be doing is engaging with the local population to see what they think about it before MPs vote it through later this year.”