Hospital patients in Herefordshire will receive better treatment under new plans revealed this week.

An investment of nearly £3.5m by the Primary Care Trust and NHS Trust will target individual services.

Those under scrutiny include orthopaedics, cardiology and emergency medicine.

Changes in clinical practice should also be seen.

"This is an ambitious programme of redesign and investment", said Paul Bates, chief executive of the Primary Care Trust.

"We intend to invest in services which will improve the patient's care and experience before they reach hospital, while in hospital, and after their discharge."

The announcement follows on from a restructuring plan released last year entitled Beds in Herefordshire.

This set out ideas for the expansion of Herefordshire's health service as a whole and has seen the creation of a new city-based intermediate care facility, the growth of Rapid Response Teams, and a £200,000 investment to improve diagnostic services.

Now, officials are looking at the different sections of the health service separately to decide on how to improve these.

One of the biggest drives will be for more investment in cardiology, both in employees and equipment.

It is estimated that an extra £250,000 will be allocated to this.

Orthopaedics has been given the aim of reducing the time patients' wait for operations.

"Herefordshire's health services have seen many exciting developments in recent years, including a new state of the art hospital in Hereford," added Mr Bates.

"This paper describes a new wave of changes which are not just about investing in buildings and equipment, but will see the redesign of services in a way that will increase our capacity and ability to provide the care the public expect of us."