Over half of ambulance trusts are still not meeting a key government target on response times, according to figures released on Tuesday.

But government statistics for 2001 to 2002, covering England's 32 ambulance trusts, show more are meeting the target of reaching 75% of "life-threatening" emergency category A calls within the eight minute target than before.

Last year's figures showed only three services met the target, but this latest data for average performance over the year shows that has risen to 14.

The government claims figures for March show 28 out of 32 trusts met the target in that month, and that it expects all trusts to hit the target by the end of the year.

The figures show we are moving in the right direction.

Peter Walsh, Association of Community Health Councils

Sixteen other trusts reached between 60 and 75% of category A calls within eight minutes, up from 12 the previous year.

Just two failed to reach 60% of calls within the target time, down from 11 last year.

Sixteen trusts responded to over 95% of other emergency calls within 14 minutes in urban areas, or 19 minutes in rural areas.

However, only six rural trusts and no urban trusts achieved the target of arriving within 15 minutes of the agreed time in 95% of urgent cases.

Prioritisation

Overall, the number of emergency calls rose by 7%, from 4.4m to 4.7m calls between 2000-01 and 2001-02.

There are a number of possible reasons for the increase, including increased use of mobile phones, a rise in the number of inappropriate calls, and changes to the way family doctor services are organised at evenings and weekend which mean people cannot contact their own GP directly.

Worst 3 ambulance trusts - % of emergency calls reached in 8 minutes

London - 57.2 West Country - 58.1 East Anglia - 63.8

The number of incidents attended by ambulance services also rose by 7%.

And the number of emergency patient journeys has risen by 6% from 2.9m to 3.1m.

It is only in the past couple of years that "call prioritisation" has been introduced, allowing ambulances to be despatched to the most serious incidents first.

A patient reported to have had a heart attack would be prioritised over a non life-threatening injury.

The government has invested tens of millions of pounds in recent years to help ambulance trusts meet this target.

'No room for complacency'

A Department of Health spokesman said: "This is a vast improvement on the previous year.

"Upwards of �50m has been invested over the last few years, and the there have been changes to the way the ambulance trusts work.

Best 3 ambulance trusts - % of emergency calls reached in 8 minutes

Staffordshire - 87.5 Lancashire - 78.3 Essex - 78.1

"If every ambulance service meets the (category A) target, 1,800 lives can be saved every year alone among heart attack victims aged over 75."

Richard Diment, chief executive of the Ambulance Services Association said: "We are doing things differently and more cleverly, but at the same time, the improvements are largely a question of the investment that the service has seen."

He said most people did not abuse the ambulance service: "For a member of the public, a medical emergency is a medical emergency - you don't know if what's affecting you is serious or not.

"What the ambulance service needs is more flexibility to assess the case and offer people more appropriate resources, whether that be sending a paramedic, suggest that they make a doctor's appointment or contact NHS Direct.

"Having that better range of treatment options will help everyone."

Michael Willis, head of the West Country Ambulance NHS Trust said it was making progress on reaching 75% of emergency calls in eight minutes:

"We're well on course to meet that challenging target.

"It's only the additional resources and new technology and new approaches coming in that will actually make that difference."

Peter Walsh, director of the Association of Community Health Councils told the BBC: "This is good news because the figures show we are moving in the right direction.

"Performance is getting better, but there's no room for complacency. There are a lot of ambulances that are taking too long to reach their patients.

He added: "It's almost inevitable that in some of those cases, people will have died before the ambulances arrives."

"It's not a question of apportioning blame. We're all interested in improving performance.

"But it doesn't come cheap. To make further improvements in this performance is going to cost a lot of money."

Dr Evan Harris MP, Liberal Democrat health spokesman said: "It's a pity the government is not honest enough to admit they have missed their target - and probably will not meet it until December this year. This is now running two years late."