AMBULANCE chiefs were today celebrating news that services across North and East Yorkshire are finally hitting their toughest fast-response targets.

The success of the Tees, East and North Yorkshire Ambulance Service (TENYAS) in meeting the Category A response time targets has put the service into the nation's elite.

Service spokesman Nigel Metcalfe said: "This is an absolute belter. To turn things round from not doing very well to become one of the best performing in the land really is superb."

To hit the Category A target, an ambulance service must reach 75 per cent of life-threatening calls in eight minutes.

TENYAS bosses say they are now hitting more than 76 per cent of calls in eight minutes.

The news comes less than a year after Health Which? magazine claimed TENYAS was reaching only 55 per cent of calls in under eight minutes.

In response, TENYAS chief executive Trevor Molton set a 100-day time limit for improvement after his appointment in June, when the service was still stuck on 55 per cent.

Mr Molton said the target had been hit for a number of reasons.

These included the recruitment of more front-line staff, deploying more rapid-response vehicles, and swelling the number of staff in communications centres to oversee Category A calls.

Mr Molton also highlighted the ongoing programme to fit satellite navigation equipment into accident and emergency vehicles.

He said: "This calls for a massive vote of thanks to all who've worked so hard.

"Everyone has focused their efforts magnificently - and we've cracked it.

"The public deserve this new level of performance, and the service has, with every justification, got a new sense of pride."

Mr Molton paid tribute to staff in TENYAS' non-emergency patient transport services division, from where "heavy recruitment" was made to help hit the target.

"A lot of holes were left in patient transport services. It's to the credit of all staff in that service that it was kept going."

Mr Metcalfe pointed to last month's coach crash on the A64 - when a bus skidded through the central reservation and ended up in a field - as a good example of the two divisions responding quickly and working closely.

The coach driver and his 49 passengers were injured in the crash.

"We were on the scene very quickly, and after the injured who needed emergency treatment had been taken to hospital, some walking wounded were taken home - some to as far as Blackpool - by the PTS division," he said.

He also said the work of York's "pedalling paramedic", Mark Inman, had been a boost.

"He has beaten the ambulance to nearly every call, often meaning it could stand down if the patient didn't want more treatment," Mr Metcalfe added.

Updated: 14:02 Monday, October 01, 2001