THE ambulance service is boosting its fleet of emergency vehicles in parts of Gwent where problems are being experienced in meeting response times.

Rapid Response Vehicles (RRVs) will be based at ambulance stations in Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly and Chepstow - seven are being introduced into service across the South East Region of the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust.

The paramedic-led vehicles, funded by the Assembly and health authorities, are designed to respond immediately to life-threatening calls and provide essential emergency treatment at the scene until an ambulance arrives.

Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly and Monmouthshire are areas where the service has had particular difficulty in meeting response time targets.

Though response times for category A - life threatening - calls improved by an average of 10 per cent across the three areas during the first six months of 2001, they are still well below the target rate. The aim is for 75 per cent of ambulances to arrive at the scene of such calls within eight minutes.

By the end of June, the rate in Caerphilly was almost 44 per cent, in Blaenau Gwent nearly 47 per cent, and in Monmouthshire just over 47 per cent.

The RRVs are considered as a valuable extra resource and not as a replacement for existing emergency ambulance services.

The trust has also introduced a scheme in which ambulance staff who train volunteers in basic lifesaving skills so they can begin to treat a patient before an ambulance can reach them.

"We are looking forward to the inevitable improvements in the delivery of care that these additional resources should provide," said South East Regional Ambulance Officer George Murphy.