BOLTON'S top healthcare management is taking a bigger than average share of NHS funds. Bolton Community Healthcare Trust has come near bottom of a North-west league table compiled to show the proportion of income spent on bosses rather than direct patient care.

Hospital chiefs fared better and came in the top half by pegging senior management spending to 3.4pc of total costs .

The first national table was compiled after outrage over a 400pc increase in NHS managers in five years.

The figures reveal wide differences, with trusts spending between 2.1pc and 10.8pc of their budget on bureaucrats.

The national average was 3.9pc and the North-west average 3.7pc.

In Bolton the community trust spent £700,000 or 4.7pc of its £15.9 million budget on management.

£2.6 million of the £75.4 million allocated to Bolton hospitals was used to pay for top management. This put the hospital trust in 12th place and the community trust 42nd out of 50.

But the community trust deny they are spending excessively on senior management and say much of the structure is requred by law.

A statement said: "What the league tables do not show is the quality, productivity or cost effectiveness of services."

The trust claimed it has the most efficient finance department in the North-west and one the lowest staff costs per patient contact in the region.

The survey was based on an Audit Commission formula and non-clinical staff earning over £20,000 were classed as management.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.