LANCASHIRE'S speedy ambulance service may soon find itself in the slow lane after local health authorities refused to give it extra funding.

The Lancashire Ambulance Service NHS Trust has been told it will not be getting any more money from the four Lancashire health authorities.

The trust wanted an extra £300,000 to help maintain its position as one of the country's speediest services in the face of a rapidly growing number of call-outs.

The service was named top rural ambulance service in the country after it managed to reach 75 per cent of all serious call-outs within eight minutes.

In order to maintain that level in the next 12 months, the trust wanted to buy three more paramedic cars and cover extra shifts to provide more ambulance cover - and a better service.

But instead, service chiefs fear ambulances may be taken off the road as they attempt to balance the books.

One suggestion is that cover for sick paramedics may be axed, meaning there may not be enough staff to get all the ambulances on to the road.

Assistant chief executive John Calderbank said: "This situation is definitely giving us cause for concern.

"By 2001 we need to be reaching 95 per cent of critical call-outs within eight minutes.

"At the moment, we are reaching 69 per cent and we will struggle to meet the target if we don't have extra funding.

"The number of call-outs is rising and we can't continue to perform at our current excellent level if funding remains the same."

He added that many of the requests made by GPs to ferry sick patients to hospital may also suffer.

"GPs normally say how long a patient can wait.

"We meet that time in the majority of cases but again, that good rate will fall if we don't get funding.

"We will need even more money next year to bridge the difference between the service we are providing and the national targets.

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