Senior West Midlands health professionals have issued a last-ditch plea urging the Parliament to scrap controversial health reforms.

But speaking at the Conservative conference, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said there would be no U-turn over the government’s radical changes to the NHS.

He said: “Bringing change to the NHS has not been easy but it has been the right thing to do. Because change means a better NHS for everyone.”

A letter signed by 400 health experts claimed the changes “will do irreparable harm to the NHS, to individual patients and to society as a whole”.

Those signing it included Jacky Chambers, Director of Public Health at Heart of Birmingham Primary Care Trust; Valerie Little, Dudley’s Director of Public Health, and Elaine Denny, Professor of Health Sociology at Birmingham City University.

The reforms, which involve scrapping NHS primary care trusts and allowing GPs to commission care directly for patients, will be considered by the House of Lords next week.

They will make it easier for the NHS to commission services from the private and voluntary sectors. But in their letter, the health professionals claim that this will “disrupt, fragment and weaken the country’s public health capabilities”.

Labour said the letter showed the Government should think again. Steve McCabe (Lab Hall Green) said: “The public do not want these changes and furthermore they are really concerned about the effect they will have on the quality of NHS services in the future.

“These changes are not only unwanted by the public and health professionals, but they are undemocratic.”

Unelected “commissioning groups” involving GPs and other health professionals would spend NHS money but they would not be accountable to the public, he said.

“I fear this will threaten the very foundations the NHS was built on and will signal an end to a universal health service.”