WAITING lists for NHS patients in Wigan and Leigh increased over Christmas - but health chiefs insist they are still on course to achieve end of year targets.

Figures show there was a 2.9 per cent waiting list increase for Wigan and Leigh Health Services NHS Trust in December 2000, compared with previous month's statistics.

Numbers had swelled from 5,994 in November to 6,168 in December.

Health bosses said a rise was to be expected in the Christmas period.

Tony Halsall, director of Nursing said: "The monthly increase in the waiting list figures was as expected as emergency admissions reach their peak over the winter period. Wigan and Leigh Health Services NHS Trust is ahead of plan and we are still on target to achieve end of year figures."

Waiting list figures throughout the North West for NHS trusts rose in December by 1,735 compared to the previous month to 162,897.

But the total waiting was 13,187 lower than at the end of December 1999.

Health Minister John Denham said: "Waiting lists always go up in winter, but this year better planning and more investment have kept increases to a minimum.

"The small rise in the NHS waiting list was expected, and will probably have risen again during January. The fact that the rise was almost two thirds less than the rise in December 1999 is a real tribute to NHS staff."