WAITING lists for hospital treatment continue to fall, according to the latest figures.

The number of people waiting dropped by about one per cent in the last month in the Burnley NHS Trust and Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley NHS Trust region.

In Burnley, 4,596 patients are now waiting for treatment compared to 5,203 in May last year, a drop of about 12 per cent.

In the Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley area, 5,140 patients are now on the waiting list, compared to 5,271 in May last year, a drop of about two per cent.

The trusts were criticised last month when it was revealed that they had some of the highest percentages of patients on the "suspended list" for patients who have been taken out of the queue for treatment.

Burnley came sixth on the league table of NHS trusts with high numbers of suspended patients, and Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley came 18th.

The trusts denied putting patients on the suspended list to make waiting lists look better and said patients were only suspended for genuine reasons such as if they were pregnant, ill or needed other treatment before surgery.

Waiting lists across the North West have dropped by almost 9,000 patients in the last year to 164,938.