THE ambulance service is in line for a continuing financial boost as a reward for hitting a government-set target.

The Tees, East and North Yorkshire Ambulance Service (Tenyas) will receive £90,000 extra capital, Health Minister Rosie Winterton has announced.

If the service maintains its levels of performance, it will also receive a further £20,000 a month for the rest of this year.

In making her announcement, the minister also praised the hard work of ambulance staff that has led to the faster service.

"This is just one example of how the NHS is getting better here, thanks to government investment and staff working hard and working in new ways," she said during a visit to the service's headquarters, north of York.

"Faster, more convenient access to patient-centred emergency care cannot be delivered and sustained without co-operation across the whole system of emergency care."

Tenyas has received the lump sum under a government incentive scheme for reaching 75 per cent of life-threatening emergencies within eight minutes for the first three months of this financial year.

Chief executive Jayne Barnes said: "We are delighted with the improvement in performance and the fact that this has enabled us to receive some capital funds, which will improve the working conditions for staff.

"We need to work hard to continue this performance."

A number of projects have been introduced over the last year to improve standards across the service's area.

They include increased front-line cover and the setting-up of 35 first responder schemes where volunteers are trained to respond to emergencies before an ambulance arrives.

Retained firefighters in the Cleveland area have become co-responders, so they can also help in medical emergencies, and the Life Cycle scheme in York, involving paramedic cyclists, has increased its operational hours.

A rapid response desk has been introduced in the York control room to deploy alternative responders, including air ambulances and doctors

And high-tech dispatch systems analyse available resources against predicted activity, making suggestions about where to position vehicles for the quickest response.