The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has condemned "short-sighted" plans to scrap the NHS Direct telephone service and defended the money-saving expertise of around 150 Westcountry health workers.

Chief executive Dr Peter Carter, said the "valued" service, which employs around 100 call-centre staff in Exeter and Truro, and nurses throughout the South West, already saved £213 million each year.

Dr Carter has urged the coalition Government to consult fully before leaving patients without the expert advice of trained nurses.

"The evidence suggests that the expert advice of nurses has kept one and a half million people out of Accident and Emergency," he said.

"I would be short-sighted to cut back on the experts who deliver these long term savings."

The Government's planned reforms are contained in the NHS White Paper, and include giving GPs control of commissioning and handing more independence to hospital trusts.

As part of the plans, the NHS direct telephone service in England, which employs 3,300 staff at 32 sites nationwide, including 1,400 nurses, faces the axe.

The number will be phased out and replaced by a new, more memorable, single point of access, reached by dialling 1-1-1.

A spokesman for NHS Direct said three pilot schemes were under way to assess "delivery methods", in the East Midlands, the North West and East England.

""The idea is to make the NHS more effective and we expect to be involved in the roll-out of the new service," the spokesman said.

"It is too early to say how staff will be affected but it is expected that the new number will eliminate the need for callbacks from nurses."

The call comes as shadow health secretary Andy Burnham urges Liberal Democrats to join Labour in opposing Government's plans for reform of the NHS.

Mr Burnham says the reforms do not reflect the wishes of the voters who elected them in May or the coalition agreement struck by Nick Clegg.

Mr Burnham said Lib Dem MPs "hold the key to the future of our NHS" as it faced "the biggest threat in its 62-year history".

Former Labour health secretary Frank Dobson, who helped establish NHS Direct in 1998, said the decision to replace the service was "crackers".

His views were echoed by former deputy prime minister, Lord Prescott, who urged the public to sign an online petition he initiated to save the helpline.

But a Whitehall source gave short shrift to Mr Burnham, and his fellow Labour critics, claiming his comments were calculated to boost his leadership campaign.

"In reality, the Government's plans give the NHS a clear and stable framework for the next five years and beyond," the sources said.

"Our plans will sustain the NHS, not break it down – unlike Mr Burnham's regressive policies."