PATIENT services will be "blighted" after plans for a medical centre opposite the Royal Berkshire Hospital were shelved due a u-turn from the trust's board, it has been claimed.

The proposed facilities would have offered a base for multiple GP practices serving south Reading and helped struggling surgeries to cut their costs.

But the plans for the centre - which were approved by Reading Borough Council last month - have been scuppered after the trust's board made a last minute decision to take the land off the market.

Hospital bosses have claimed increased demand has forced them into a rethink but those behind the bid said it "beggars belief" why they have changed their minds.

The site at 17 Craven Road, which is owned by the trust, will now remain vacant while chiefs at the RBH decide on their next move.

Dr Gerard D'Cruz, of the Pembroke Surgery in east Reading, was among the group of GPs who first launched the bid back in 2011 in an effort to pool resources to protect smaller surgeries from folding.

He said: "The case for a primary care centre on that site is an overwhelming one and it's for that reason we need to seriously represent in the strongest of terms that it's an iniquitous decision to withdraw the site from sale a thwart this project.

"I do not give a monkeys who owns the site - I care about services for patients.

"This mistake could blight services for patients for years to come."

No deals had been signed between GPs and the hospital for the project - which had five surgeries on board - but Dr D'Cruz said the plans had been supported by the hospital, local clinical commissioning groups and bankrolled to the tune of £100,000 by NHS England.

A Royal Berkshire Hospital NHS Foundation Trust spokesman said: "Changing circumstances, increased demand and pressure on its services, particularly emergency care, has led the trust to consider that it needs to ensure that it makes the most efficient use of its land and estates for the provision of secondary care health services to local people.

"The trust appreciates it is disappointing for a local general practice provider after so much work, but the increasing pressures on acute services locally mean we must review our position."