LEIGH MP Andy Burnham has uncovered shocking figures showing Leigh patients are missing out on NHS funded private health treatment.

Andy quizzed Health Secretary Alan Milburn at a health select committee in London, over Department of Health data that shows North West people are seven times less likely to be sent to a private hospital by the NHS than people in the South-East.

In a bid to cut waiting lists the government set up the NHS Concord act with the private sector. Under the agreement, NHS patients are treated in the private sector when the sector has spare capacity. The bill is then picked up by taxpayers.

But figures show patients down south are far more likely to benefit from the scheme.

Andy said: "I think it is a good policy bringing people through the waiting list, there's no doubt about it. But these figures show patients in the North do not benefit as much as patients in the south.

"I think it is true in my own experience, as I have not noticed many people in Leigh able to benefit from the policy. I am pushing for the scheme to be made available more widely."

Figures showed three and half thousand south east patients were treated on the scheme while just 444 North West people got the treatment.

Andy said he thought part of the reason for the disparity was because there is more private sector capacity around London and the South East.

The Leigh MP is a member of health select committee, and it was in this capacity that he brought the matter to Alan Milburn's attention.

Andy said: "Alan Milburn gave a very good response. He said he understood the point I was making and sympathised. He said he was trying to redress the balance."