THE three primary care trusts (PCTs) which pay for health services in Buckinghamshire expect to be £14million in the red by the end of the month.

And the county's mental health trust also expects to be £1million over budget.

Only Bucks Hospitals' Trust, which runs Wycombe, Amersham and Stoke Mandeville hospitals, expects to break even helped by profits of more than £7million from sales of land.

This enabled it to pay back money loaned by Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority (SHA) to get over past deficits.

Bart Johnson, chief executive of Chiltern South Bucks PCT, said his trust's £4.5million deficit arose from having to pay for more emergency care and the increased cost of care for elderly people.

The countywide overspend is contained in March's report to the SHA board on the finances for Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Milton Keynes.

The region's six hospital trusts, three ambulance trusts, three mental health and community trusts and 15 PCTs have accumulated a £59million deficit, though this may be reduced to £30million because the SHA itself is in profit.

The figures emerge when the NHS nationally is said to be heading for an overspend of £800million, in spite of increases in its budget of 30 per cent since 1997.

David Lidington, Conservative MP for Aylesbury, said no one denied that the NHS was getting more money.

But he said PCTs were also being told to spend more money so that hospitals could meet Government targets.

Both Mr Lidington and Wycombe MP, Paul Goodman, have been asking questions on health funding in Parliament.

Mr Lidington said Bucks was one of the lowest NHS funded counties per head of population.

He said: "The Government says you have a healthy and well-to-do population and so you get less money', but that does not explain to me why NHS trusts are in so much difficulty.

"One good thing has got to be to devolve decision-making to local level to give people responsibility to decide their priorities."

Mr Goodman said figures for last year showed that PCT spending per head in Bucks was about 16 per cent below the national average.

"All four PCTs are in the lowest quarter when the 304 PCTs in England are ranked by spending per head," he said.

Of the Buckinghamshire PCTs, Wycombes deficit is £2million, Chiltern South Bucks' £4.5million and Vale of Aylesbury's £7.5million.

All Bucks PCTs have had to fork out from their current budgets to bale out Milton Keynes PCT.