THEY are all higher up the table than Southampton. Every year Liverpool, Blackburn and Newcastle come out on top against their south coast rival.

No - we're not talking premier league football but the way the government dishes out money to provide local health services.

At the start of this financial year the prognosis is already not good as the trusts that run the county's hospitals, doctors' surgeries and dental practices are together saddled with a £40m deficit.

Now the way money is allocated to communities for frontline healthcare is set to come under the spotlight on the election trail in Hampshire.

Eastleigh's Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Chris Huhne has given the Daily Echo a copy of the current spending plans for the 304 primary care trusts - responsible for primary care such as doctors, dentists, opticians and pharmacists - across the country. The Department of Health figures show that for the year 2007 to 2008 an average of £1264.40 in Hampshire is to be spent per person on the health professionals and services you first need when you have a health problem.

This compares to a national average of £1,388.00 per head and an even greater £1569.33 per head for Northumberland Tyne and Wear in the north east.

Funding for the PCTs is governed by the Department of Health and based on a formula that takes into account factors such as the cost of living, the population's age profile, levels of deprivation and unavoidable geographical variations in the cost of providing services.

Mr Huhne, who hopes to keep the Eastleigh seat in the Lib Dems' hands, said it was unfair for Hampshire patients to get just under a tenth less than the national average and a fifth less than Geordies.

He blames the gap in health care funding on the government's current funding formula.

"Although I recognise that we are relatively well off in the south, and that we also have fewer health needs than in areas with more deprivation, the bias against the south in these figures is so strong that I cannot believe that such big funding gaps are justifiable particularly as our costs are higher."

If elected on May 5 he has pledged to form an all-party group of Hampshire MPs to lobby the Department of Health for a change to the way Hampshire's health services are funded.

He added: "The government simply has to recognise that this is not enough for local needs."

The Conservative's parliamentary candidate for Eastleigh, Conor Burns said: "There is a definite imbalance in the funding system. Here in Eastleigh we have born the brunt of Labour's maliciousness against the south with the closure of the Mount Hospital. "I first visited someone there 12 years ago and it was a fine facility for local people."

He said the sale of the land would just go towards plugging the deficit in the NHS and now means Eastleigh residents having to travel further afield to Winchester, Southampton and Romsey for healthcare.

"If I am elected I will be pushing as hard as I can to get a fair deal for local people on local health issues."

Labour's Chris Watt, also standing in Eastleigh, said: "The funding allocation must take into an account things like deprivation.

"Areas in the north do get a bit more money and that reflects the fact that they tend to be a bit poorer."

However, he added that Hampshire's high elderly population would mean extra funding and that the present funding formula took into account an individual community's needs.

"More money than ever has gone into the NHS since 1997," he said.

Chris Murphy, Eastleigh's UKIP candidate, said problems funding the region's healthcare could be solved by pulling out of Europe.

"We get accused of being a single issue party but every hour this country is paying £1.5m to the European Union in different types of payments.

"By doing that we could raise the money to pay Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust deficit off in about nine hours."

He called for a fairer and more equitable funding formula to be introduced.

It is up to PCTs to make sure each community's specific health care needs are met.

No-one from Southampton City PCT, Eastleigh and Test Valley South PCT, Mid Hampshire PCT, New Forest PCT, or Fareham and Gosport PCT would comment about the current funding plans.

Instead they agreed to release a joint statement via the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Strategic Health Authority.

The health authority's Director of Finance Alan Butler said: "Money is allocated to Primary Care Trusts (PCTS) from the Department of Health using a national formula that takes into account weighted population for age etc, deprivation and cost of living. "This process ensures that funding is allocated appropriately and fairly across the country and is based on need.

"For the last three years and for the next two years the NHS has and will receive a nine per cent growth in funding each year.

"This is a significant amount of additional monies to spend on healthcare.

"All PCTS have a responsibility to provide services that meet government policy and the needs of the local people within their allocated funding."

For this financial year (2005-2006) Southampton City PCT has £1,132, Eastleigh and Test Valley South PCT has £1,099, New Forest £1,120 and Mid Hampshire PCT £1,060 to spend per person.

No-one from Fareham and Gosport PCT was able to provide a figure on how much they have to spend per person for this financial year.

For more on the local issues of the General Election campaign - see pages 8 & 9 of today's Daily Echo.