A senior health service director has said the Welsh Assembly's plan to reorganise the NHS in Wales are "in chaos".

The criticism comes as it emerges that three key posts are yet to be filled, despite being advertised back in May.

Health Minster Jane Hutt is pressing ahead with a radical shake-up of the NHS by axing Wales' five health authorities in April next year and replacing them with 22 local boards.

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But the fact that three regional directors are yet to appointed to oversee the proposed new structure is being viewed as a failure by some insiders, who want the shake-up scrapped.

"It is chaos because the three regional appointments are pivotal to the whole organisation," said Kenneth Cross, a director of Dyfed Powys Health Authority, which faces abolition by 2003 under the plan.

"The assembly is in panic mode, probably trying to conscript three unwilling civil servants to take on these posts."

"If they are not of the right calibre, it would be a disaster."

But Kirsty Williams, who chairs the health and social services committee at the Welsh Assembly, said the restructure was taking place rapidly.

Ms Williams was confident the new system would be ready to take over in the spring.

But she blamed any appointment delays on the fact they were "looking for the right people for the right jobs".

Jane Hutt's NHS revamp faces criticism

Mr Cross argued that the lack of applications has also been felt as the assembly attempted to recruit 22 chief executives for the new-look local health boards.

"We hear that, of the 22 chief executives that are supposed to be announced by the end of the month, there may only be 10 appointed because they had no-one else to appoint."

Mr Cross said this was due to the unpopularity of the new system, and a lack of understanding who is responsible for what within the structure.

Describing it as the most complex administrative health system in western Europe, Mr Cross felt it was not too late to cancel the introduction of the scheme.

"Dropping it would save millions and years of chaos to come, because at the moment these organisations will not be fit for purpose in April."

Costly move

However, while Ms Williams admitted the restructure was "difficult, uncomfortable and unsettling" for staff, she disagreed that the restructure would be more complex, and claimed patients would reap the benefits.

"People will understand that local organisations will be commissioning services on their behalf and they will be assisted by a regional tier," she said.

The NHS revamp scheme has already met with a mixed response from the medical profession and opposition politicians who fear it will increase bureaucracy without improving treatment for patients.

The British Medical Association is also worried that the new structures will not be ready to take over when health authorities are abolished on 1 April next year.

Ms Hutt announced the plan to turn Wales' five health authorities into 22 local boards in November 2001, and said the move would be "cost-neutral".

However, it later emerged that the streamlining move, which forms part of a 10-year modernisation strategy, would cost up to �15.5m.