AN extra £700,000 is on its way to various North-East NHS groups as a reward for improving performances.

The extra money from the Department of Health has to be used to improve emergency care services.

The funding has been awarded to seven local NHS organisations - six hospital trusts at Hartlepool and North Tees, South Tees, Gateshead, Newcastle, South Tyneside and Sunderland and North East Ambulance Service NHS Trust - for their exceptional performance in providing emergency care.

The six hospital trusts received £100,000 each for consistently seeing 95 per cent of patients in and out of A&E within four hours or less from April 1 to June 30, while the ambulance trust received the same amount for responding to 75 per cent of emergency calls with eight minutes during the same period. The money will be used to develop services within those organisations.

David Flory, chief executive of Northumberland, Tyne and Wear Strategic Health Authority, said the trusts "have done exceptionally well to reach and maintain such high levels of performance. The hospital trusts are now working to a further target of seeing 98 per cent of patients in and out of A&E within four hours by December this year.

"This is another example of how local NHS services are improving. Patients requiring emergency care are now receiving this much more quickly than they have done in the past."