AMBULANCE crews in Lancashire have proved to be among the quickest and most efficient in the country.

League tables released by the Government show that the Lancashire Ambulance Service is the very best at responding to life-threatening calls.

More than two thirds of such calls were responded to in Lancashire in the space of eight minutes.

Lancashire crews also attended 98 per cent of all emergency calls within 19 minutes - better than the 95 per cent target.

David Hill, Chief Executive of the Lancashire Ambulance Service said: "These performance tables confirm our position as one of the country's top performers in ambulance response times.

"The service has made even further progress towards reaching the Government's new target of reaching 75 per cent of all life threatening calls within eight minutes by the year 2001." Mr Hill congratulated staff throughout the county for their effort in helping attain the results.

The Lancashire service claims to have one of the most state of the art emergency control rooms in Europe operating with the most up-to-date computer tracking and location tracking systems.

Hi-tech radio equipment is currently being installed at the ambulance headquarters to transmit information on 999 calls and patients' conditions from the control room to a data terminal fitted in the cab of the ambulance.

It is hoped the technology will give ambulance crews a better idea of what to expect before they arrive at their destination.

More than 130,000 calls were handled through the Lancashire ambulance control room in late 1997 and early 1998, showing the huge demand placed on staff.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.