The south east regional office of the NHS is recommending to health minister Hazel Blears that the proposals are given the go-ahead, despite fierce opposition from nearly every major organisation involved.
HampshireÕs Ambulance Trust rejected the plans earlier this year, believing that the proposals would not be Òin the interests of the local populationÓ.
In August the Hampshire serviceÕs board stated that a merger would be Òdetrimental to both residents and staff who are currently achieving rapid improvements in meeting targets for new standards in response timesÓ.
North HampshireÕs Community Health Council, which acts as a patient watchdog, also opposed the ÒvisionÓ outlined in the consultation document Delivering a Modern Ambulance Services in the South East Region.
The document proposes to restructure every ambulance service in the south east and to pool the resources of the Hampshire and Surrey trusts and amalgamate them.
Every CHC in Hampshire and Surrey supported a joint letter objecting to the plans.
However, the regional office is still pursuing the proposals after a recent meeting between health authority chief executives and the regional director, Ruth Carnell.
The regional officeÕs paper Next Steps Following Consultation on a Proposed Restructuring of Ambulance Trusts, states: ÒMost of the responses supported the vision of more effective, modern ambulance services, however few of the responses expressed unqualified support for the proposals.Ó
A lack of consensus on the reasons for overall lack of support was attributed to Òpresenting a local perspectiveÓ.
The paper recommends that the merger should proceed, subject to ministerial approval.
Chairman of the Hampshire Ambulance Trust Sarah Murray said: ÒChange for changeÕs sake is not an option and we canÕt support that and we are very disappointed.
ÒWith the other changes which are happening with the health service at the moment - the changes to health authorities, formation of primary care trusts - we should be able to take stock of these things before we start to change anything else.Ó
Mrs Murray said everyone within the ambulance service had been working hard to improve its response times and the last six months had seen a significant improvement in meeting government-set targets.
ÒChanges always affect levels of service and we are very worried that the response times will slip as we try to keep and eye on all of these change,Ó she said.
She added that although changes to the ambulance service have been on the cards for more than three years, the service could have a very short period of time to implement them.
The chairman said that a ministerial decision was expected before Christmas and, if the plans are given the nod, the new-look service will start in April 2002.
ÒIn the least we would like these changes to be put on hold for a while until we all know where we are, but what we would really like is for these changes to be put on the shelf and forgotten about.Ó
The trustÕs board has written to Hazel Blears, urging her to throw out the proposals, and has also written to the NHS regional office to express its views.
In a statement north HampshireÕs CHC also condemned the recommendation.
It said: ÒIt now appears that the public opinion is once more to be ignored.
ÒThe Hampshire CHCs are urging the health minister Hazel Blears to listen to the public and reject the proposal.
ÒCHC chief officers say that at a time when the government is insisting on public involvement in the planning, development and monitoring of health services, they should prove their willingness to listen to the clearly expressed views of the public in Hampshire by rejecting the merger proposals.Ó
On Monday Whitehill Town Council also expressed its disgust at the news and agreed to write to Bordon MP James Arbuthnot and Secretary of State for Health Alan Milburn.