THE North-East Ambulance Service has been commended after an inspection by the Commission for Health Improvement (CHI).

Following an inspection by a team from CHI the Newcastle-based NHS trust, which covers County Durham, Tyneside, Wearside and North-umberland, is praised for its efforts to meet national response time targets.

But the CHI report expressed concern that volunteer car drivers in the non-emergency patient transport service were not required to take a test, did not have qualification checks and received no training.

The inspectors said staff worked in "a supportive environment that encourages feedback, training and education."

The ambulance service had made "real improvements" in reaching 75 per cent of life-threatening calls within eight minutes.

More than 95 per cent of non-urgent patients are taken to hospital within 30 minutes of their appointment time, the inspectors added.

But they also called for improvement in communications across the trust.

The report also looked at the running of the 24-hour NHS Direct health helpline, based at the ambulance headquarters on Tyneside.

The report concludes the the majority of callers were "more than satisfied" with the service, although more callers are put on hold than the national average.

Peter Homa, chief executive of CHI, said the trust and the NHS Direct site needed to work together to develop clear mechanisms for seeking patient views and involving patients, the public and service users in service developments.

"The trust is developing an action plan in response to our report and, once implemented, the quality of patient care should improve."