STAFF at Hampshire Ambulance Service are celebrating, after consistently achieving their government targets for the last six months.

This time last year, the trust was one of the worst in the country for its response times - it reached just 32 per cent of life-threatening calls within the standard eight minutes.

But in less than 12 months, it has turned the service around, and staff have continued to reach and exceed the government target of reaching 75 per cent of these calls within the set time.

Figures released this week show the overall achievement for 2001 to 2002 is 66.9 per cent, exceeding the regional target of 66.1 per cent.

The trust is just below its target of reaching less urgent calls within 19 minutes, achieving 92.7 per cent against a target of 95 per cent.

But things are certainly on the up for the organisation, which last year was facing a merger with the Surrey Ambulance Trust.

The controversial plans were thrown out after months of deliberation by the Department of Health.

A life-threatening incident, or category A call, is one which requires a response within eight minutes, such as a patient with breathing problems or a potential heart attack victim. The trust believes the secret of its success is down to a number of new schemes and initiatives introduced over the last six months.

These include increased funding, new technology, the commissioning of Rapid Response Vehicles and the establishment of Volunteer First Responder schemes.

A spokeswoman for the service said: "Credit must go to the staff and volunteers who assist the service to deliver these improvements in an increasingly difficult environment."

The trust is now reviewing ways to improve the response times to less urgent calls.