Tess Mitchell (73) has gathered a 100-signature petition demanding that facilities escape a proposed health shake-up.

Her concerns were sparked after the government announced plans to expand polyclinics, which are being trialled in London.

The new-style clinics house GPs alongside medical services normally offered at hospitals, and are better suited to patients' needs, according to the government. But GPs have encouraged their patients to lobby MPs and their primary care trusts to drop the plans.

Mrs Mitchell has garnered support from other residents at the Loxley sheltered housing complex in Werrington, Peterborough.

She fears the clinics will put profits before patients and erode the doctor- patient bond. And she is also concerned about how elderly people will get to the centres.

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Mrs Mitchell said: "Most people who signed had been totally unaware of the proposed moves to introduce polyclinics – a vast complex of surgeries and treatment rooms – and inviting commercial concerns to be involved.

"We all know commercial concerns are answerable to their shareholders, first and foremost. Where does this leave the patient?"

Spokeswoman for the Peterborough Pensioners Association Mary Cooke fears people may not be getting the full story from the Peterborough Primary Care Trust (PCT).

She said: "The PCT insists this wouldn't be a case of closing GP surgeries, but then why introduce polyclinics?

"My concern is the privatisation of the NHS."

Following the announcement of plans to introduce 150 super surgeries across England, city MP Stewart Jackson warned: "I am very concerned that Labour's planned cuts to GP services will mean local residents will have to travel further to see their doctor when they are ill.

"These polyclinics will also be impersonal, breaking the valued link between patients and their family doctor."

Director of finance and contracts at Peterborough PCT David Bacon said: "We are committed to providing a high-quality and accessible health service in Peterborough and are working with GPs and other providers to identify possible options for the future.

"Our proposals focus on the creation of services additional to existing GP surgeries and not their closure."

Find out more about polyclinics: New-style clinics 'a threat' say Tories, 18 June 2008