GWENT'S five Local Health Boards could be replaced by a single such body next year, after just six years in existence.

The Argus understands another major NHS reorganisation is planned by health minister Edwina Hart, following a series of NHS trust mergers in Wales.

Although an Assembly spokesman stressed that "no plans to reorganise LHBs have been announced at present", Monmouth MP David Davies claims it is an "open secret" that Newport, Torfaen, Monmouthshire, Blaenau Gwent and Caerphilly Local Health Boards will be replaced by a single super-LHB in April 2009.

NHS insiders told the Argus change is coming, possibly based on the idea of equal number of LHBs and trusts.

"It means more reorganisation, which many people think the NHS could do without," said one source.

"LHBs were only set up in 2003 but they have established a strong identity for themselves."

Mr Davies has been critical of individual decisions taken by the NHS locally, but believes the idea of LHBs with the same boundaries as local authorities works well.

"The whole idea was to make it easier for the NHS and social services to work together," he said.

"Creating a giant health quango will undermine these efforts and scrapping LHBs will be costly and take up a vast amount of management time which could be better spent improving standards of care.

Mr Davies added that robust public consultation on any proposals are vital, and any concerns raised must be considered in depth.

There is commitment in Cardiff Bay to "ending what remains of the internal market in the Welsh health service," said an Assembly spokesman.

"This will involve changes to the way the service operates, with the aim of simplifying the system, reducing unnecessary bureaucracy and ensuring a coherent approach to the long term planning of the NHS in Wales, and the delivery of high quality services."

Mergers will reduce Wales to nine health trusts APPROVED and proposed NHS trust mergers across Wales will reduce their overall number to nine, including a specialist regional cancer trust and the ambulance trust.

That leaves seven others, and 22 Local Health Boards.

Slimming five LHBs down to one in Gwent would go a long way toward evening up the numbers.

The Assembly would aim for any reorganisation to save money or at least be cost neutral, but this issue has proved contentious before.

The replacement of five health authorities with the LHBs in 2003 was hailed by then health minister Jane Hutt and First Minister Rhodri Morgan as cost neutral.

But opposition parties highlighted £15 million in adminstration costs as proof it was not.