Patients at a Birmingham clinic have criticised NHS plans to re-name the building as an “insult” to the pioneering doctor it is currently named after.

The Colston Health Centre on Bath Row is named after Dr Brian Colston who campaigned for 30 years to get purpose-built premises introduced at the site in Birmingham.

But the Heart of Birmingham Teaching Primary Care Trust wants to rename a replacement building, being created a few yards down the road, and has started a competition offering residents a £100 prize to come up with a new name.

Patients at the centre have criticised the plans.

Bridget Pearce, who lives in nearby Edgbaston, said: “To give Dr Colston this honour and then whip it away for £100 is a disgrace. What a tacky, nasty thing to do. We just feel that this is an insult to him.

“I’ve been a patient since 1978 when it was called the Lee Bank centre, and when I first joined Dr Colston was the main man who continually pressed for better facilities.”

Fellow patient Beatrice Nagal is also desperate to keep the current name and is furious with the suggestions of changing it.

“Without the vision, research and commitment of Dr Colston we would not have such a highly regarded health centre here which continues to expand,” she said.

“We now need a new building, we do not need a new name.”

Dr Colston began working in Birmingham in 1956 when the city didn’t have a single health centre, and the ten existing centres nationwide were under-achieving.

However, the enthusiastic retired GP believed that quality health care in the community could not develop until a number of services and personnel could be housed under one roof.

Fellow GPs were against the idea but he pressed on, sometimes single-handedly, and eventually completed what he set out to achieve.

Dr Colston was the first GP in Birmingham to provide smear tests for women and his efforts were crucial to the development of baby, asthma and diabetes clinics, antenatal services, and a Citizens Advice Bureau.

He retired in 1991 being made an MBE and the honour of having the centre re-named after him.

A spokesman for the Heart of Birmingham Teaching PCT said they understand the concerns and stressed they will all be taken into consideration during consultation.

“Should it get the go-ahead, we need to make sure there is no confusion for patients who may not know that the building has moved. Having a new name may be the best idea for this.

“The current name will be on the shortlist and if the centre was to be re-named we would look at alternative ways of recognising Dr Colston’s significant contribution.”