THERE was good news and bad news for East Lancashire's hospitals as the latest waiting list figures were revealed.

While the Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley Health Care Trust recorded a fall in the number of people waiting for NHS operations, particularly in the number of people waiting more than 12 months, Burnley Healthcare NHS Trust's patients were kept hanging on for surgery.

Surgery lists in Blackburn, Hyndburn and the Ribble Valley have been cut from 4,783 people in November 1999 to 4,776 in November 2000.

While the number of people who were made to wait more than 12 months for an operation was slashed by 25 per cent to 39 people.

This figure ranks Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley Health Care Trust as the fifth most improved trust across the North West in terms of people waiting more than 12 months.

Janice Atkinson, Trust business manager for Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley, said: "The Trust is making steady progress towards achieving the government's waiting list targets due to the hard work of staff and a number of waiting list initiatives currently in place.

"Our target is to have no more than 5,094 patients waiting for operations at the end of March 2001. The reason we significantly exceeded the target in November is that during December/January we suspended non-urgent operations for three weeks to cope with winter pressures and we wanted to build in some security within the waiting list figures during the earlier months to allow for a rise in numbers during December and January.

"We are optimistic that we will be able to achieve this target.

"Good progress has been made in reducing the number of patients waiting more than 12 months for surgery and we hope to have no patients in this category at the end of March 2001."

In comparison Burnley Healthcare NHS Trust was one of the least improved trusts in November 2000 with 68 people waiting more than 12 months for an operation -- 47.8 per cent more than in November 1999.

The overall waiting lists for Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale also increased from 4471 people to 4674. No-one at the Trust was available for comment.

The monthly health authority report released with the waiting list figures showed waiting lists within the East Lancashire Health Authority had slightly increased from 11,738 people to 11,840.

But it noted a 1.8 per cent decrease in the number of people waiting more than 12 months.

The most improved health authorities in the North West were the Wirral who decreased their lists by 3.1 per cent, followed by Bury and Rochdale HA and Morecambe Bay HA both with a 2.6 per cent cut.

In Preston and Chorley, patients had mixed fortunes with overall waiting lists increased by 125 people while the list of people waiting more than 12 months for an operation was slashed by 60 per cent.