More than a thousand patients have signed a petition after doctors warned they could go out of business if private firms start running surgeries.

Bosses at Luton Primary Care Trust (PCT) are currently mulling over who should run a health centre and two new GP surgeries set to open in the town next year. What has angered GPs is the possibility of the contracts being given by private healthcare companies, which they say would cause a major change in the service patients receive.

Last week a committee of doctors from across Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire launched the Save My GP campaign, with petitions at surgeries and on the internet.

Dr Una Duffy from the Bell House Medical Centre in Dunstable Road, Luton, said: 'We set up the campaign to raise awareness of what the government has planned for Luton and what it will do to the traditional network of practices in the town. There will be no resources for any of the practices that are already there. Practices will close if patients register at the new centres.

A spokeswoman for the PCT said the new facilities would make it easier and more convenient for patients to get medical help, and it would make no difference whether the provider was the NHS or a commercial enterprise.

For more information about the Save My GP campaign, click here

For a link to the PCT website, click here.