AMBULANCES in the North West will be expected to reach more than three quarters of all emergencies within target times it was announced last week.

By next March, as part of a new government plan aimed at saving more lives, ambulance services will have to reach 75 per cent of all life-threatening emergencies within eight minutes.

The scheme was just one of a number of new initiatives announced at a board meeting of the Lancashire Ambulance Service NHS Trust.

Chief Executive of Lancashire Ambulance Service, David Hill, said: "In Lancashire we are one of the few ambulance services in the country to be already achieving this target and we are looking forward to improving still further, with the consequent benefit to patients."

Board members particularly welcomed another plan for ambulances to be equipped with video and monitoring equipment and a new three-year programme aimed at training and equipping paramedics to provide vital 'clot-busting' drugs for patients with heart attacks. Trust chairman Ruth Winterbottom said: "Although we have not had the opportunity to consider all the details, the National Plan requires all NHS Trusts to ensure that they have a highly motivated, well equipped workforce delivering top quality services to patients.

"We shall need to work in partnership with other NHS Trusts to ensure that the development of all local services is fully co-ordinated in terms of patient transport requirements."

It was also announced that the nurse-led telephone line, NHS Direct, would be developed into a one-stop gateway to healthcare, providing services to over three million people in the North West by the beginning of November.