The government faces a serious cross-party revolt this week over plans that would give the health secretary and officials he appoints greater powers to close hospital accident and emergency departments and other services.

The issue is politically explosive, with campaign groups – including 38 Degrees – warning all MPs that hospitals in their constituencies could be vulnerable to sudden cuts or even closure in the runup to the 2015 general election.

Ahead of what could be a heated Commons debate, a Lib Dem former health minister, Paul Burstow, has tabled amendments to the care bill that are likely to be backed by Labour and some rebel Tory MPs.

They fear the powers would allow popular and successful services to be closed or downgraded within 40 days, without proper public consultation.

The controversial Clause 119 was inserted into the bill after health secretary Jeremy Hunt was told by the court of appeal last year that he had acted beyond his authority in attempting to cut emergency and maternity services at Lewisham hospital in south London.

The proposed changes were part of a shakeup proposed after the neighbouring South London Healthcare trust went into administration, with losses of more than £1m a week. Opponents of the cuts at Lewisham argued that their successful hospital should not suffer after failings elsewhere. Hunt said services would be delivered best if reorganised over a wider area.

Now Labour as well as Lib Dem MPs and Tory rebels are insisting on proper consultation with local doctors and service users before changes are made to successful hospitals.

Clause 119, dubbed the "hospital closure clause" by critics, gives powers to a "trust special administrator", appointed to a financially failing trust, to recommend changes across a region. Labour health spokesman Jamie Reed has signed an amendment put forward by Burstow to require more consultation and give doctors who commission services a veto over any reorganisation that follows failure in a separate hospital.

Nick de Bois, Tory MP for Enfield North, who fought a lengthy battle for his local hospital, said he would not be backing the government: "My constituents have seen first hand the flawed, unrepresentative consultations on the future of Chase Farm hospital … I have no intention of voting for a clause that reduces further the voice of patients and residents."

Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said: "It is arrogance in the extreme for Jeremy Hunt to ask parliament to give him powers that the high court refused. No hospital in England is safe from this power grab, which would allow money-driven hospital closures to be imposed on any community. With so many hospitals in financial difficulty, this move will send a chill through every community in the country."

Burstow said that if a hospital was failing badly, ministers should have a "rapid way of assessing the options and fixing the problem". While he accepted that services provided by one hospital were part of a web that linked them to others nearby, " the changes bring hospitals that are not failing into this rapid process". "It is vital that clinicians and the public are fully involved, and that is what my amendment is trying to fix."

A Department of Health spokesperson said: "The NHS is currently turning round a number of hospitals in special measures, many of which have had deep-seated problems for years.

"In extremis, when a trust goes into administration, it is necessary to give the administrator enough power to take the difficult decisions necessary to ensure patients get safe care. In such situations lives are put at risk if the problem is not dealt with swiftly."