WORCESTERSHIRE'S health service is in line for a 9.7 per cent rise in funding.
Health Secretary Alan Milburn announced the inflation-busting increase, which will give the health authority an extra £34.6m to spend next year - taking the total to £393m
After inflation, the increase is worth an extra £25m per year, a real terms increase of 7 per cent.
Herefordshire's increase will be 9.8 per cent, to a total of £130.65m.
It has been partly funded by the extra £1bn Chancellor Gordon Brown announced for health in last week's pre-budget report.
"We welcome the extra money for our budget," said health authority spokeswoman Janet Ferguson.
Mr Milburn also announced that, from July next year, any patient who has been waiting more than six months for heart surgery will be offered the choice of treatment at a NHS hospital in another area, the private sector, or even abroad.
But the health authority will have to foot the bill.
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