THE NHS spends almost £900 less a year on Oxfordshire patients than those in parts of London and the North, the Oxford Mail can reveal.

But NHS chiefs claim it is because we are ‘healthier and wealthier’ than most.

New figures reveal a huge difference in ‘per capita allocations’ by primary care trusts, which pay for healthcare.

The average Oxfordshire working adult pays £1,653 a year into the NHS through National Insurance.

But county health bosses are only given £1,374 per person to pay for treatments such as doctor and dentist appointments, cancer treatment, and accident and emergency trips.

Residents in Hackney in East London are allocated £2,235, while Liverpool residents are given £2,137.

The amount an area is given is worked out by a number of indicators, including the number of people over 65, unemployment rates and the ethnic make-up.

Health chiefs said the county gets less because overall it is deemed an ‘affluent area’, and therefore healthier.

But Matthew Tait, finance director of primary care trust NHS Oxfordshire, said the trust was still faced with annual funding issues, and spent most of its money dealing with long-term illnesses, obesity and an ageing population.

He said: “As people grow older they demand more healthcare resources.

“It puts a big pressure on health services. Obesity is another pressure.”

NHS Oxfordshire is given about £900m each year to pay for the county’s healthcare.

More than £350m is paid to Oxfordshire’s hospitals, £90m goes towards primary care, such as doctors appointments which cost between £26 and £80 a time, and £70m pays for drugs and prescriptions.

Almost £29m is spent on accident and emergency departments.

Mr Tait added: “Society is changing – the NHS needs to change to respond to the rising demand for healthcare from an increasingly older population.

“As people grow older they need more healthcare which is putting a big pressure on the NHS nationally and locally.

“With advances in technology and medicines, people are also living longer through diseases such as cancer, and living with long-term conditions which require treatments.”

Cancer campaigner Clive Stone, from Eynsham, has called for changes to end the so-called ‘postcode lottery’ of healthcare funding.

Mr Stone is a member of the Kidney Cancer Support Network, which has petitioned against the procedures of the Government’s health advisory panel the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice).

He said: “The difference in per capita allocations is wrong and I’ve always said it was.

“It doesn’t drill down and work out how many people are suffering from what.

“It’s not fair.”