THE St Albans and Harpenden primary care groups (PCGs) could be set to merge, barely a year after doctors pressed for separate bodies.

Health chiefs are meeting today (Friday) to launch plans to merge the two grassroots groups, made up of GPs, nurses, social services and lay members.

They say the move to create a single Primary Care Trust would improve the provision of health care and other essential services in the district by creating a more 'powerful negotiating force'.

The two groups, which only came into operation last April, replaced GP fundholding practices and have taken health spending decisions away from the larger West Herts Heath Authority.

But health chiefs say the groups are not individually strong enough and, if they get backing for their proposal, a single trust could be in place by April next year.

St Albans PCG chief executive Steve Knighton said: 'While it is important that we continue to recognise the separate identities of Harpenden and St Albans, we believe the time is right for the two PCGs to work together.

'As one organisation we will have greater resources to ensure a strong local voice for health services.'

Harpenden PCG chief executive David Davies said: 'The primary reason for wanting to merge is that we want to get the best health care for people in our population.

'That means we need to have sufficient resources to be able to represent their needs in the negotiations which inevitably have to take place in the local health economy.

'If this proposal does succeed, we expect our combined budget to be of the order of £75 million, whereas our budget for Harpenden and the villages is about £25 million.

'That makes us a much more powerful negotiating force.'

Moving to trust status would enable the combined groups to be both a purchaser and provider of health care. It could then, like other trusts, employ its own nurses, therapists, administrative staff and managers.

Mr Davies added: 'Our feeling at the time the two groups were set up was that it was right for them to be separate and that was what we argued for in Harpenden. This has still given us a big opportunity to work closely with local people, local schools and the town council in developing a health improvement programme.'

St Albans MP Kerry Pollard said: 'Merging the services seems to make eminently good sense. If you think about it, we've got one district that includes St Albans and Harpenden and the villages and to have a primary care trust split into two is divisive.

'The benefits are that you would only have one chief executive looking after it and one board, so it keeps the administrative expenses down which enables more money to go into patient care.'

Harpenden MP Peter Lilley added: 'From my discussions so far with GPs and other people concerned with local health provision, I'm inclined to accept that it should go through and that it may strengthen the position of Harpenden Memorial Hospital and St Albans City Hospital to have a single trust covering the whole area.'

After a three-month consultation period, which starts today (Friday), the health authority will decide whether or not to support the proposal in October. Its comments will be passed to the regional office of the NHS Executive, which will decide whether or not trust status should be established.

It will then be up to the Secretary of State to make a final decision sometime in December.