FEARS are being voiced about the consequences of a health merger after the chairman of a neighbouring health trust resigned after 37 patients waited more than 18 months for treatment.

Gillian Miscampbell, who has been chairman of Stoke Mandeville Hospital NHS Trust for the past six years, resigned on Tuesday and it is thought that at least one non-executive director of the board has resigned in protest.

As the Free Press reported last week Buckinghamshire Health Authority has announced a discussion paper looking at a series of clinical networks, effectively creating one main in-patient centre for some specialisms and having out-patients clinics at every hospital.

Health bosses are also looking at merging Stoke Mandeville and South Bucks NHS Trusts and fears are being raised about what this will mean for patients following Mrs Miscampbell's resignation.

MP for Aylesbury (including Princes Risborough) David Lidington, said: "The Government has betrayed patients and staff at Stoke Mandeville. Ministers are trying to shift blame for their own failures on to local staff. Ministers promised to cut waiting lists, but they have gone up. Ministers said they would improve the NHS but things have got worse.

"Stoke is now left without a chairman at the very moment when key decisions have to be taken about re-building

"This is the worst possible time to have this crisis of the leadership of the hospital. There is absolutely no case for a merger that is pushed through for political motives in a half-baked fashion. If there is a merger then the implications for both South Bucks and Aylesbury have to be carefully thought through.

Rodney Hill, director of personnel and corporate affairs at Stoke Mandeville Hospital NHS Trust, said: "We very much regret these waiting list failures.

"We are determined to learn from them and to ensure that our systems are robust and that staff have the knowledge and skills to manage waiting lists effectively."

He said that Mrs Miscampbell had given "real commitment and leadership to the trust."

A spokesman for Buckinghamshire Health Authority, said: "Mrs Miscampbell's resignation has resulted from Stoke Mandeville's failures concerning management of waiting lists as she herself has publicly stated. It is totally unrelated to the current investigation into the feasibility of forging closure links between Stoke Mandeville and South Buckinghamshire trusts."