A long-standing family GP has opted out of plans to give doctors control of deciding how money is spent in the NHS.

A consortium of Kingston GPs is one of the national pathfinder organisations racing ahead with reforms which would see primary care trusts and strategic health authorities axed.

Dr Gabriel Steer, 62, who inherited the Gloucester Road practice from his father Charles in 1997, said he was opposed to the reforms for a number of reasons.

He said: “I think it is a disaster. I’m against it mostly on principle that it is the wrong way to go.”

The GP also feared for the future of Kingston Hospital, which is nearby his practice.

He said: “My concern is we are going to end up being the architects of cuts and most of these cuts will be on Kingston Hospital because that is where most of the cost is.

“The patients have been told we have got all this money and they are going to want to know why they can’t have whatever pet treatment.”

NHS Kingston said that only one GP had opted out of the consortium with 27 joining in. A spokesman said: “It’s up to the GPs what they do and it is something they have been sorting out among themselves.

The largest GP practice in Kingston has taken over the management of a surgery whose patients have been campaigning for years for improvements.

Charles Alessi, senior GP at Churchill Medical Practice, which has four surgeries, met patients of the Orchard Practice in Hook last Wednesday, April 6.

Two new GPs and a Churchill manager will assist Dr Bala Balasingham after the retirement after 12 years of his wife Dr Siva Balasingham.

Colin Dance, chairman of the Orchard Practice patients group, said: “Everyone was extremely impressed with how the new partnership are proposing to develop the practice and try to upgrade the dilapidated facilities left by NHS Kingston and which we are still being treated in."

A Kingston NHS spokeswoman said: "We will be discussing options around the future development of the Gosbury Hill site with the practices involved."