A CRUCIAL five-year blueprint for health services in Worcestershire is about to be revealed - with NHS bosses warning of a £250 million 'gap'.

On Tuesday a new strategy for the county's health sector is due to be published, starting a wave of public consultation.

The dossier, known as the 'Sustainability and Transformation Plan' (STP), has already been interrogated by NHS England and will have big implications for the county.

Under the plan, Worcestershire has been lumped together with Herefordshire to gage what sort of demand the counties expect to have to deal with by 2021.

Warnings have been fired that if all services remain as they are, by then the two areas would be a whopping £250 million in the red.

The impending release of the proposals was debated during a meeting of the health and wellbeing board at Worcestershire County Council.

Simon Trickett, chief operating officer at the South Worcestershire Clinical Commissioning Group, said: "A lot of work has gone into it.

"We can work out our aspirations of where we'd want services to be by 2021, and then work backwards so we can decide what steps we need to take each year in order to get there.

"We've worked out that at the end of the five-year period, there will be a gap of around £250 million if we provided exactly the same services as we did now, to the same population in exactly the same way."

He then told councillors if "we all did our jobs properly" and progressed with existing plans for change the gap would reduce to £60 million, with the STP tasked with closing to nil.

He said the two counties spend around £1.16 billion on healthcare now and that sum will rise to £1.32 billion by 2021 anyway, but if they "carry on as they are now" they would need £250 million extra.

Some councillors voiced fresh concern over the possible implications.

Cllr Tracey Biggs said: "I would find it very easy to 'self care' myself, but if was old and sick I'd find it much more difficult."

Cllr Anne Hingley called NHS services "paramount to our country", saying it must be defended.

Mr Trickett said the plan would build on the work already underway, based on keeping more people out of A&E.

It will also tie in with the existing clinical services review.

It follows a torrid few years when Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust has been battling with a record £50 million deficit, and serious complaints about frail patients left on hospital trolleys for hours.

It has also continuously missed national Government targets for dealing with A&E visitors within four hours, something in common with trusts nationwide.