NHS spends £1m per week on Viagra, mostly...

THEY say it's hard oop north...but not in all parts, it seems.

Because startling new figures obtained by the News of the World have unearthed a huge north-south divide in VIAGRA use.

According to latest NHS figures, spending on the anti-impotence drug in England RISES dramatically in the north-west.

Down below it's less than HALF that...suggesting southern blokes aren't such softies after all.

Top of the flops is Knowsley in Merseyside where GPs dish out £148,000 worth of the little bedroom helper every year.

The area-whose most famous residents have included former PM Harold Wilson and six-times-wed actor Sir Rex Harrison-spends an average of £1.86 per head on Viagra-style drugs.

Still in the north-west, Halton and St Helens, Salford, Blackpool, Manchester and Stockport all feature in the top 10 biggest spenders.

But to soften the blow a bit, London's New Labour enclave of Islington is up there too.

Harder

Its local Primary Care Trust spends £1.46 per head of population on impotence drugs-the FOURTH highest in the country.

But the trendy borough couldn't be further removed from the rest of the capital which boasts some of the LOWEST spending areas in the entire country.

Barking and Dagenham, Kingston and Richmond, Havering, and Twickenham all feature in a bottom 10 made up entirely of southern regions that spend as little as 70p per head on the treatment.

Nationwide, the NHS is faced with a £1million bill every week for the blue pills. Almost 5,000 prescriptions are written for them every day.

Blokes who claim to be suffering "severe distress as a result of impotence" can get the pills for free or a small prescription charge.

A standard-issue eight tablet packet of Viagra sets the NHS back as much as £46.99.

And that's pretty stiff wherever you come from!

AREAS with the biggest spend on Viagra per head...

1 Knowsley £1.86

2 Hastings & Rother £1.64

3 Halton & St Helens£1.52

4 Islington£1.46

5 Northumberland£1.40

6 Salford£1.44

7 Blackpool£1.40

8 Manchester£1.38

9 Lewisham£1.34

9 Stockport£1.34

10 Sunderland£1.34

AREAS with the, er, smallest spend on Viagra per head...

1Kingston70p

1 Berkshire West70p

2 Barking & Dagenham 70p

3Sandwell 76p

4 Richmond &

5 Twickenham76p

6 Bath & North

7 East Somerset76p

8 Oxfordshire78p

9 Milton Keynes78p

10 Plymouth 80p

11 Havering80p