NEARLY 60 new ambulances and rapid response vehicles will be bought thanks to a cash injection from the Assembly, it was announced on Friday.

Health minister Edwina Hart said the Welsh Ambulance NHS Trust was to receive a £5 million funding boost to replace emergency vehicles.

More than £22 million has already gone to the service from the Assembly to modernise the ambulance fleet in recent years.

The new money will be used to buy 31 emergency ambulances, 28 patient care services vehicles, 28 rapid response cars, nine district transport vehicles and seven specialist vehicles.

Concern about response times has regulary made the headlines and in July we reported these fell sharply in both Newport and Torfaen in July.

Regularly replacing ageing vehicles improved reliability, patient safety and comfort as well as ensuring they were all fit for purpose, said an Assembly statement.

Mrs Hart said: "Ensuring the ambulance service has state-of-the-art, modern equipment is essential is patients are to receive the service they need.

"The new vehicles will improve the experience of patients and also improve working conditions for staff."

She added that the Assembly was also investing £10 million installing automated vehicle location systems into all emergency ambulances to help controllers deploy the nearest ambulance to a patient and automatically send their details to the crew.

"I know that staff work extremely hard and are doing their best under constant pressure and being equipped with the latest equipment and vehicles will support them in their work."