The Government has been accused of "going through the motions" over public consultation on the proposed mergers of ambulance trusts.
The criticism came as it emerged that the NHS Appointments Commission has placed national advertisements for chairmen even though public consultation over the proposed mergers ends next month.
The ten posts pay between £17,164 and £21,882 based on a three-day week. Successful applicants will be temporarily appointed to a "pool of potential Chairs pending the out-come of the consultation process".
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Robert Lake, chairman of Staffordshire Ambulance Service, regarded as one of the country's best-performing, said the advertisements had "a sense of inevitability to it all."
If the Government plans win public and ministerial approval after consultation ends on March 22, the UK's 31 ambulance trusts will be reconfigured into ten larger services. The only trust to be unaffected is London Ambulance Service.
The Midlands region could be covered by a new service - West Central Ambulance - if a merger of West Midlands, Hereford and Worcester, Coventry and Warwickshire, and Staffordshire goes ahead.
Mr Lake, who said he was paid "about £18,000", claimed the Government was pushing the reforms through too quickly.
He said: "This Government seems impatient to push these mergers through. It's difficult for me to know why the Government should be doing this when we're still in public consultation.
"Now people are asking how far this is a real consultation or is it just a case of going through the motions?
"It does appear very strange to advertise these posts on this timetable when consultation is still going on. There does seem to be a sense of inevitability to it all."
He said Staffordshire's service could be effectively downgraded if swallowed up within a 'super-trust'.
He said: "Our trust is like Chelsea Football Club. We are so far ahead of the pack that we've probably won the Premiership already. We're not going to apologise for being so good but we're not going to criticise other trusts either.
"However, Chelsea wouldn't merge with Scunthorpe because they wouldn't be able to maintain their performance at that level. Scunthorpe would benefit from that move but it wouldn't work the other way round.
"We've got a high performance across the trust, particularly for resuscitating heart attack patients who would otherwise have died.
"We need to maintain standards and local control, but that said we do not and never have been in favour of this proposed merger."
Despite his opposition Mr Lake plans to apply for his own job, to ensure other Midlands trusts reach their high standards.
He added: "If this has to happen, and I still don't want it to, I will throw my hat into the ring to make sure other trusts are brought up to the same standard as us."
Yesterday a spokesman for West Midlands Ambulance Service defended the move, stating "it's been well documented these jobs are up for grabs".
The proposed merger is set to be discussed by Birmingham City Council's health scrutiny committee next Wednesday.
Last night a Department of Health spokesman denied the advertisements pre-empted the final decision.
"The adverts do not preempt any decisions that Ministers will make," he said.
"This is necessary contingency planning. If a decision is made to change ambulance trust configuration, we would need to be able to move quickly to establish the new organisations in order to minimise uncertainty for staff and for business continuity."
