NEW performance targets will present big challenges for Cumbria Ambulance Service in the year to come, according to the trust's annual report.

Both the chairman, Brian Clayton, and the chief executive, Alan Donkersley, identified the new target of responding to 75 per cent of all immediately life-threatening calls in eight minutes as being a top priority.

In his annual report, Mr Clayton wrote: "It seems to me that the pressure on the service will increase further as the trust moves to the even more demanding performance standards laid down by the Government.

"Although some extra finance has been made available, this will still not enable us to achieve the minimum of 75 per cent of category A calls within an eight minute response time from April, 2001.

"The reason for this is the very nature of the county we cover in which there are very many sparsely populated areas."

Mr Clayton identified the community-based first responder scheme as one of the ways forward.

Launched in Great Broughton, the scheme involves a group of volunteers living in an isolated rural community, who have been trained by the ambulance service in basic life support and the use of a defibrillator.

If the ambulance service receives a medical emergency within that area, the group is notified, and can respond quickly.

Mr Donkersley said consultants had identified a large number of community first responder schemes as one of the ways to help them meet the target.

The other two suggestions, which the trust was taking up, were to increase the manning on standby stations at weekends, and to increase the number of manned first response vehicles, which operate for 16 hours a day, 365 days a year.