Patient representatives have hit out at a cash-strapped health authority for spending £48,000 on a report from management consultants proposing radical service changes.

A report commissioned from consultants Finnamore by Bedfordshire HA recommends a merger of two local community trusts - Bedford and Shires Health and Care trust and South Bedfordshire Community Health Care trust.

But it argues in favour of retaining two accident and emergency departments and core general hospital services in both Bedford and Luton.

North Bedfordshire community health council chief officer Rosie Newbigging said the HA had 'no reason to employ outside consultants' when it sought to make£6m cuts over a three year period.

An HA spokesman said: 'The proposals to merge the two community trusts will realise£500,000 of savings, and this will be a reduction in management costs, not clinical services. The money spent on the consultants should be seen in this light'.