HEALTH campaigners have hit out at plans to combine NHS services across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and West Berkshire.

Proposals for an Integrated Care System (ICS) covering the three counties as well as a possible single clinical commissioning group (CCG), are part of a national drive for areas to work together more closely.

A public consultation concluded on Sunday into the plans.

Oxfordshire first took steps towards working with the two other counties’ healthcare systems in 2016, when a partnership called the Sustainability and Transformation Partnership was set up.

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Bill MacKeith, secretary of Oxfordshire Keep Our NHS Public, however, said: "The three CCGs already have their own ICSs working to integrate services locally, responding to local needs, based on the experience of working across local organisations, where building close professional relationships and trust is key to improving services for patients."

He added one CCG would be a 'retrograde' step as it would 'burden' health providers with 'unnecessary layers of bureaucracy'.

View the full plans here.