PLANS to hold public consultations on planned health cuts in Evesham and other parts of South Worcestershire - including the proposed closure of the Mamillan Unit - will be officially announced next week.

In a brief statement issued yesterday, Paul Bates, acting chief executive of the South Worcestershire Primary Care Trust, said the board was still considering how best to move forward.

The statement followed a meeting on Tuesday between Mr Bates and PCT chairman David Barlow and Councillor Simon Geraghty, chairman of Worcestershire County Council's Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

It was the committee which decided three weeks ago that nine of the 13 proposed cuts should go to a period of at least six weeks public consultation.

Mr Bates's statement said: "Our board is still actively considering the implications of the request by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee that we proceed to public consultation on nine of our proposals for reducing expenditure.

"We expect to make a public statement of our position next week.

"In the meantime, we are proceeding with those measures which are not subject to public consultation."

Those four measures are:

l Altering the ways of working for health visitors, including working in geographical patches which link to GPs, rather than dedicated to each GP practice

l Reducing the cost of school nursing by concentrating on priority services

l Relocating some district nursing to clinics rather than all being home visits

l Reducing the costs of GP out-of-hours service by rationalising the number of sites at which patients are seen

The PCT has also responded to a letter from GPs in the Evesham and Broadway areas claiming that the proposed savings flew in the face of declared government policy on the future of community hospitals and local consultation within the health service.

Mr Bates wrote: "The dilemma that faces ourselves and other PCTs is that we must play our part in returning the whole of the NHS to financial balance and in the short term at least it means we have to reduce our expenditure significantly and we cannot do so without looking at every service we commission or provide.

"At the present time, even with the proposals to which you object, we are facing a deficit of more than £5m.

"In theory we should be bringing forward even more radical proposals such as closing community hospitals altogether but our Board is firm in its view that anything more radical would be neither acceptable nor sustainable.

"It does mean, though, that every other measure must be pursued.

"At this point in time it makes sense to wait for the new Worcestershire PCT to consider its long term commissioning intentions. I have no doubt that Evesham will be high on its agenda."

There have already been calls for any decision on cuts to be deferred until the new unitary county-wide PCT comes into being on October 1.