A NEW vision for health and social care services in Herefordshire should start to become clear by April.

Throughout the year, groups of people have been working together to look at how services are provided now and to consider if they could be improved and delivered fit for purpose and with greater efficiency for the future.

The project is led by Herefordshire Primary Care Trust (PCT), Herefordshire Council and Hereford Hospitals Trust working with West Midlands Ambulance Trust, GPs and other clinicians.

People from the voluntary sector and the health services management centre at the University of Birmingham have also been commissioned to help develop a model for the future.

It has just produced a 78-page report on discussions but says there is more work to do and it is too early to come up with specific options at this stage.

The plan is to develop new models of care for the future across the whole spectrum of health and social care in Herefordshire ranging from maternity services to end-of-life care.

The groups have generally agreed there should be greater integration of health and social care to offer patients more personalised care closer to home.

They also want to develop stronger high quality networks of health staff – from GPs to health visitors and pharmacists to make sure services are available throughout the communities of Herefordshire and that the knowledge of experts is used as efficiently as possible.

Planning for the future is a unique challenge for those responsible.

Herefordshire’s population of 180,000 people is relatively old, with one in five people aged over 65, a group likely to grow by a further 23% over the next five years.

The population is also scattered over a large area, density in the county is low, with just 82 people to a square kilometre, compared with the England average of 380 to the kilometre.

Preferred new models of care are expected to be firmed up by April and the project will then identify the best organisational configurations to support them.

Anyone interested in the project can find out more on the PCT web site myherefordshire.com/shapinghealth andwellbeing/