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Mental health spending varies hugely around the country, even when the different costs of providing services and levels of need are taken into account, King's Fund research published today has found.

The think-tank said today that spending per head by Islington and Derbyshire Dales and South Derbyshire primary care trusts was four times greater than that by Bracknell Forest and North Eastern Derbyshire PCTs in 2004-5.

In total, 14 of the existing 303 PCTs spent less than £100 a head, once spending had been adjusted for cost and need, while 13 spent more than £200 a head.

PCTs spent an average of 11 per cent of their budgets on mental health, more than any of 20 other disease areas they are required to collect spending information on.

And from 2003-4 and 2004-5, 9.3 per cent of the increase in PCT budgets went on mental health, compared with 9.2 per cent on heart disease and 7.7 per cent on cancer.