BURY is bottom of the North West league when it comes to the number of people receiving vital NHS-funded care when their health deteriorates.

Figures published this week disclosed that - at the end of March - only 26 Bury residents out of a population of 182,000 were receiving NHS continuing care funding - a ratio of just 1.43 patients per 10,000 people.

According to Department of Health figures, that means people in Bury are the least likely in the whole region to get their local NHS primary care trust to pay for their continuing care, whether that care is provided in a nursing home or elsewhere.

Bury Primary Care Trust (PCT) is ranked the sixth worst in the whole of England.

Despite this, however, the Registered Nursing Home Association (RNHA), which represents around 1,200 nursing homes, says the chances of obtaining NHS funding in the North West as a whole are almost five times higher in some primary care trust areas than in others In stark contrast to Bury's figures, Warrington PCT residents are nearly five times more likely to have their long-term healthcare costs met by the NHS. At the end of March, a total of 135 patients in a population of 193,000 people were receiving NHS funding - a ratio of 6.98 per 10,000 residents.

RNHA chief executive officer Frank Ursell said they underlined the extent to which older people with significant long-term health needs were at the mercy of a postcode lottery.

He said: "It makes no sense at all that people should have such vastly different experiences of a system which is supposed to ensure that individuals whose needs are primarily health-related have the costs of all of their care paid for by the NHS.

"An older person with multiple health problems in one area may, therefore, end up having all their nursing home costs met by the NHS, while in another area a person with similar needs could end up having to pay most of the costs out of their own pocket, especially if they do not qualify for financial help from social services."

He added: "It is difficult to see how the differences can be explained on any logical basis. What it shows is that there has been little or no consistency in the way that PCTs have been applying the eligibility criteria for NHS continuing care. The consequences of these decisions for many families run into tens of thousands of pounds."

From October 2007, the Department of Health is due to introduce new national criteria that individual PCTs will be required to use in making decisions on NHS continuing care.

Mr. Stephen Mills, chief executive for Bury PCT said: "Locally, there is a robust mechanism for determining patients who require and can be supported by continuing care, incorporating a multi-disciplinary team assessment and review which carries a much wider remit than the narrow data collection criteria referred to.

"The PCT contributes to almost five times as many patients under the continuing care criteria than those shown in the return and in 2006/07 spent more than £5 million in this important area, twice the amount spent in 2004/05."