THERE is a 'north-south divide' in the treatment of heart disease within west Hertfordshire, a new health report declares.

Despite higher rates of heart disease among people under 75 in Watford and Three Rivers districts, they have been given less treatment than those living in Dacorum and St Albans, according to West Hertfordshire Health Authority and Hertfordshire County Council's joint annual health report published last Thursday.

The revelation comes at a time when a 'postcode health lottery' has been said to exist nationally. The report states there was, between 1996 and 1999, a 'broadly north-south divide in West Hertfordshire' for bypass operations, non-surgical treatment to unblock arteries and cholesterol-cutting drug treatments.

It adds: 'Local work underway in 1999/2000 began to address these iniquities.'

The section on coronary heart disease makes worrying reading for Watford residents. Death rates in the under-65's with heart disease have risen in the town while they have been falling in the region as a whole.

Dr Peter Reader, chairman of Watford and Three Rivers Primary Care Group, said heart disease was one of its priorities.

He said: 'I think the problem with prescribing is that, until now, there have been no national guidelines, so some GPs in the south may have been deterred from prescribing certain drugs because they have to balance the risks themselves and some GPs in the north could have been prescribing to the wrong people.

'I am hoping the board agrees at a meeting on Thursday to allocate money to practices so they can extend their services to tackle the problem, such as setting up cardiac clinics. Historically, there have been two cardiac consultants in the north and only one in the south, which may have affected the surgical figures.'

A West Hertfordshire Health Authority spokesman said: 'We have agreed to appoint an additional cardiac consultant at Watford General, but staff across the new West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust which includes Mount Vernon and Watford General have been working closely and we are investing more money in surgical treatments.'

The report also looks at cancer rates in the west of the county. Prostrate cancer is the most common cancer in men, the report said, followed by lung and then colorectal cancer. For women, breast cancer is the biggest killer. Again, Watford and Three Rivers have higher rates than other areas in West Hertfordshire for cancer.

Watford and Dacorum districts have the highest rates in the region of conception for under-18's. In west Hertfordshire, pregnancies have risen from 27.3 per 1,000 girls in 1992/94 to 30.3 in 1995/97.

The annual health report can be seen at www.wherts-ha.nthames.nhs.uk and at GP practices, council information offices, pharmacies and libararies.