NHS patients are set to be quizzed about new proposals for how healthcare is organised in Oxfordshire.

Bosses are mulling major changes as they grapple with budget deficits and the county's bed-blocking crisis.

According to figures released by the National Audit Office last month, 50,000 days were lost in a year because patients who did not require hospital care were not discharged into social care services quickly enough.

Senior figures say plans to overhaul the NHS will involve ploughing more cash into disease prevention, rather than acute care at hospitals.

Dr Joe McManners, clinical chair of Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group, said it would require "a culture shift" in the minds of patients, asking them to live more healthily and make fewer trips to hospital.

Instead, he added, people in the future would be cared for more in their own homes.

The so-called 'Transformation Board' – made up of top NHS bosses – will be consulting the public on its proposals through to October.

A meeting for officials was held yesterday at conference facilities in Oxford's Kassam Stadium and a series of meetings and drop-in events for people across the county are due to be held locally.

A spokeswoman for Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: "At this point we don’t know how services will change, and no decisions have been made.

"During the summer, NHS clinicians and managers will be meeting with patients and the public to test ideas and possible models of care."