SURREY and Hampshire ambulance services look set to merge in a move backed by Surrey ambulance chiefs but opposed by every other key NHS player.

A consultation on the proposed mergers of ambulance trusts throughout the South East ended last month with health authority bosses agreeing the mergers with the head of the regional NHS, Ruth Carnall.

But the decision has angered Haslemere's Surrey county councillor Christine Stevens, amid fears that the decision could put the town's 24-hour emergency service in jeopardy.

"This decision has the smack of consultation without ears," Mrs Stevens told The Herald.

"Haslemere and Surrey will have an ambulance authority for two million plus lives - big is not necessarily better," she declared.

And she asked: "How long will we have a commitment to 24-hour cover in Haslemere?"

At a public consultation meeting about the possible merger last summer, Mrs Stevens raised fears for the town's ambulance service despite assurances given by chief executive of Surrey Ambulance Andy Kennedy that the emergency service was safe.

She said she was not convinced that Mr Kennedy was in a position to give an assurance that Haslemere would retain a local ambulance crew, on a 24-hour, 365-day-a-year basis.

Mrs Stevens believed that "any hope of a link to the new strategic health authority which, Surrey County Council believes should be based on the Surrey county boundary, is now formerly broken."

She called the new merger "a bit of a mess".

And added Mrs Stevens: "I am not sure the patient is coming first here."

Hampshire Ambulance Service does not want the merger, claiming it "would not be in the interest of the local population" and is concerned about the stated financial arguments in favour of the move, the availability of resources and loss of local accountability.

All Surrey and Hampshire community health councils - the local NHS watchdogs - are opposed and even West Surrey Health Authority, although supporting a merger, wants Surrey to merge with Sussex, not Hampshire, in line with a proposed health authority merger that would create one authority for the whole of Surrey and Sussex.

Local MP Virginia Bottomley supports their position.

North and Mid Hampshire Health Authority accepts the need for change but would like to look at other options.

However, despite such widespread opposition, Surrey Ambulance Service NHS Trust has backed its merger with Hampshire.

Mr Kennedy said merging would free millions of pounds for frontline services because certain resources would now be shared.

"Doubling up like we do now doesn't make sense. The headquarters here at Banstead are worth £3.7 million. If we merge there will only be one headquarters, so money will go instead to the sharp end."

Mr Kennedy continued: "We've met our response-time targets but with a 16 per cent increase in emergency cases it's going to be difficult to continue to improve on our performance.

"With West Surrey Health Authority struggling to balance its books, they're not going to be able to free up millions of pounds for us every year."

He said the trust would prefer to merge with Hampshire - not the health authority's preferred option of Sussex - because it would be disruptive for the 300,000 people in the extreme north east of the North and Mid Hampshire Health Authority region who are already served by Surrey.

Also, a merger with Sussex would mean Surrey would be reclassified as a rural service and thus its target response times would be less demanding but would mean Surrey patients would not be entitled to as speedy a response.

Seventy-five per cent of all life-threatening situation calls to ambulance services have to be responded to within eight minutes. Urban ambulance services have to respond to 95 per cent of such calls inside 14 minutes, rural ones within 19 minutes.

Hampshire Ambulance Service is currently only responding to 65 per cent of emergency cases inside eight minutes and last year only managed a 38 per cent figure.

"We've spent the last four years reviewing the future of the ambulance service and we're happy with this and are awaiting the minister's view," said Mr Kennedy.

Health minister Hazel Blears is set to decide the proposed mergers this month.If approved, they will come into effect from next year.

But despite Surrey's support, both West Surrey Health Authority and Virginia Bottomley are hoping last -minute interventions might secure a merger with Sussex.

A spokesman for the health authority said:"Nothing's ever a done deal. It's not unheard of for ministers to listen to people's concerns."

Virginia Bottomley said: "We have no confidence in this and it would mean nothing more than a levelling down.

"It flies in the face of what is being proposed for the health authority mergers. So much for joined-up thinking."

A spokesman for the trust's ambulance service last week again gave assurances that Haslemere will not lose its 24-hour ambulance cover if the merger went ahead.

Haslemere ambulance station, which was expected to move to its new location in the grounds of Haslemere Hospital earlier this year, is now not expected to vacate its present site in Grayswood Road until early next year.

That site of just over a third of an acre with a price tag of around three quarter of a million pounds, which was jointly owned by SCC and Surrey Ambulance Service, was bought earlier this year by a housing developer.

The spokesman said that tenders had been received to refurbish the new site previously used as a base for mental health personnel and a start date for the major project was expected soon.