SOUTHAMPTON General Hospital's paediatric cardiac unit has built on its reputation as a first class facility by taking delivery of a state-of-the art ambulance.

The £140,000 vehicle, which was funded by city-based charity Wessex Heartbeat, the NHS and Barclays Bank, features all equipment found on the hospital's wards and is the only ambulance of its kind in the UK.

Child cardiac patients from as far as Lands End, West Sussex and north of Wiltshire can now be collected by the vehicle and brought back to the hospital for vital life-saving treatment.

The vehicle, which has already been out almost daily since its delivery at the end of December, also collects patients flown to Southampton from the Channel Islands and the Isle of Wight.

Wessex Heartbeat chief executive Alan Blair said he was delighted with the new ambulance.

He said: "In the ambulance they can do anything they can do on the ward, so it's saving more time.

"They estimate about 180 children will need to be retrieved and this ambulance will do all of them that it can. It will be enough to cope with the demand."

Mr Blair added that the idea for the ambulance had come about at the beginning of last year, but that the vehicle was delivered just before Christmas.

He said: "The time delay was in the making - this has been custom made and it took the rest of last year to build."

Bosses at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London are said to be looking into the idea of having a similar ambulance made.