PATIENTS with dementia are being denied access to vital drugs because of postcode prescribing, according to a report out today.

While some regions of the UK spent £10-a-head on anti-dementia drugs for the over-65s, health authorities in the North-East spent less than £3, below the national average of £3.47.

The worst areas in the region were County Durham and Tees Valley, where doctors only spent £1.48 per person.

Doctors in North Yorkshire spent £2.50 per person, while their counterparts in Tyneside and Wearside spent £2.71 per person.

Experts from the drug manufacturing company Pfizer compared how overall spending on the drugs had increased between 1999 and the year 2002/3, after they were given the backing of Nice (the National Institute of Clinical Excellence) in January 2001.

The researchers found that while overall spending on drugs to combat Alzhei-mer's disease had increased since 1991, there was still a significant geographical variation in their uptake.

They looked at the money that was spent on the three main drugs - donepezil, rivastigmine and galantamine -across the UK.

The Eastern Health and Social Services Board, in Northern Ireland, spent the most -£10 per head on over-65s -compared with less that £1 in the Lothian region of Scotland.

Neil Hunt, chief executive of the Alzheimer's Society, said: ''People with Alzhei-mer's have a progressive, degenerative condition, and a six-month wait for treatment is one that they cannot afford."

Patrick Nethercot, chairman of Durham and Chester-le-Street Alzheim-er's Society, said: "These new drugs are most effective with early diagnosis."

A spokesman for County Durham and Tees Valley Strategic Health Authority said: "It is important to remember that drug costs are only a part of the overall care given to sufferers.

"Obviously, in the light of this report, we will be reviewing our current commissioning services and making changes if it gives benefit to patients."