£6m boost for 'weak' 999 service

An extra £6.75m in funding has been secured by Great Western Ambulance Service (GWAS) to recruit more staff and help meet response targets.

The cash will be used to fund more control room staff, ambulances and road crews, according to chief executive Anthony Marsh.

New recruits will be fully trained and existing staff given top-up training, he said.

The Healthcare Commission has rated the service "weak" for the past two years.

GWAS was formed from the merger of the Gloucestershire, Avon and Wiltshire ambulance services in April 2006.

In August, the ambulance trust was told by the Healthcare Commission to improve its service after it took 42 minutes to dispatch an ambulance to a woman who had been hit by a car and later died.

In April, an elderly patient complained she waited two hours for an ambulance after a fall at home.

The trust said logistical problems and changes in assessment meant it was unable to consistently meet targets over the past year.