HUNDREDS of Bucks residents are urging doctors to ‘protect the NHS and rein in privatisation’.

GPs are set to take control of local health budgets by 2014 under the coalition government’s health reforms, which many fear will result in more services being run by private companies.

Nationally, more than half a million people have signed a petition on campaign website 38 Degrees calling on the GP-led Clinical Commissioning Groups to write safeguards into their constitutions to prevent this.

The private sector has already made inroads into NHS services in Bucks, with some of the county’s physiotherapy services now run by Care UK.

The county’s out-of-hours GP service and Wycombe Hospital’s new Minor Injury and Illnesses Unit are also run by a private firm, called Bucks Urgent Care.

Among the Bucks residents to have joined the campaign are Andrea Deans, Hilary Roy, Adrienne Grimsditch, Anthony Locke, Robert Gordon, Jack Beeston, Jo Taylor, Robert Hill, Laura Nicholls, Irene Short, David Arnold, Barbara Mott, David Lyons, Simon Treves and Susan Low.

See related links for more information about the petition.