An extra £3m in funds for Essex Ambulance Trust will mean more vehicles and staff for the service, which has just completed a successful year.
The trust hit its target for emergency category A calls, despite a huge increase in incidents.
Now there are plans to expand the service and make further improvements.
Chief Executive, Anthony Marsh, said, "We were lucky enough to get extra funding for the last four months of the year which allowed us to put two extra ambulances and six rapid response vehicles on the road. This undoubtedly helped us meet the government targets.
"The settlement we have received for this year, 2004-05, will see us putting an extra £3m into extra vehicles and staffing. More ambulances will be used for more hours.
"We are making major strides in our plan to update our fleet. We have 40 new emergency ambulances and 30 new Rapid Response Vehicles on order and these should arrive during the year."
Over the year the number of category A calls dealt with by the trust rose by 43 per cent. The service managed to reach 75.65 per cent of calls within the target of eight minutes.
The government target is 75 per cent.
Published Wednesday April 7, 2004
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