A LEADING North-East surgeon has defended NHS spending on heart disease after a new study calculated that it cost the UK economy £29bn a year.

Heart surgeon Simon Kendall, head of the cardiothoracic service at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough, said services had been "transformed" in the last few years.

While the North-East still has the highest death rate from coronary heart disease in England, Mr Kendall claimed that the region had probably made the most progress in treating heart patients.

He also disagreed with predictions that the situation was likely to get worse.

Mr Kendall said massive investment had reduced the waiting time for surgery to below the Government target of 18 weeks and recent trends suggested that the number of people with heart disease in the region was now falling.

However the surgeon described increasing obesity among young people as "a tragedy."

Experts at Oxford University have calculated that the UK spends more of its health budget on heart disease than any other country in the European Union.

The cost to the NHS was £15.7 bn in 2004, which represent 21pc of all NHS expenditure.

Peter Weissberg, medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said the Government should increase public health measures to reduce heart disease, including stopping smoking, increasing exercise and improving diet.

Mr Kendall said too many people in the region were making "wrong choices" in terms of diet and exercise but acknowledged that efforts were being made to educate people.

"It is a huge effort to turn this around but I think they are trying, " he added.

Dr Eugene Milne, acting medical director for the North-East, said the forthcoming ban on smoking would be "a huge step forward" for the region.