Think of the swarms of holiday makers who flock to Brighton during the summer and it doesn't take too many mental leaps to realise accidents are going to happen.

Ambulance crews can find themselves under extreme pressure patching up bumps, scrapes and alcohol-related falls which occur in the name of summer fun.

This week Sussex Ambulance Service NHS Trust unveiled new plans to help it meet new rules for reaching emergencies, a problem which has troubled health bosses for some time.

From next March ambulance crews across the country will have to meet strict Government guidelines for responding to emergencies. Paramedics will have to reach 75 per cent of life-threatening emergencies within eight minutes.

During April 1999 and April 2000, Sussex crews reached only 56.5 per cent of patients in this category.

Already the trust has taken a staged approach to hitting the 75 per cent mark, setting itself monthly goals to achieve.

Trust operations director Trevor Anderson said crews were quietly confident changes to be brought in during 2000-01 would help reach the March targets.

He said: "The ambulance service is an integral part of the NHS. We have been successful in achieving improvements in many areas but we also recognise we must respond to changes in the structure of the NHS, technology, demand and new standards.

"With the huge agendas that were faced and limited resources available it is not perhaps surprising there were some disappointments.

"The aim of the trust is to provide continually improving ambulance services. We have set plans that take account of longer-term views of the Government concerning quality of services expected.

"This is not just about meeting the targets. It's about improving patient care." As part of the 2000-01 goals dozens of new paramedics will take to the streets of Sussex to help crews reach accidents faster.

The service has also pin-pointed 30 key locations close to trouble spots where accidents commonly occur. These include the Palace Pier, the Seven Dials roundabout and the junction of the A23 and A27.

From next month medics will be on standby at these locations to race out as soon as trouble flares, rather than responding from a central location which is further away from the accident.

Management will focus on recruitment and retention to make sure staff stay in their jobs despite unsociable hours and such problems as violence from patients.

The service will also work with voluntary groups and back-up other emergency services, like the lifeboat.

New ambulances and scaled-down rapid-response vehicles will be introduced.

Eastbourne, Seaford and Wealden Community Health Council (CHC) is one health group which has spoken out about poor response times in rural areas.

CHC chief officer John Faulds welcomed extra medics and moves to plot where ambulances could wait on standby.

But he urged the trust to make sure resources and stand by medics were evenly spread between town and country.

Mr Faulds said: "Meeting the needs of both urban and rural residents and areas is very difficult for the ambulance service. But there needs to be equity."

The ambulance service serves a population of 1.5 million people. It responds to more than 136,000 emergency calls each year. Emergency workload has increased at the rate of between five and seven per cent each year since 1995.

Resources to cope with demands have not risen at the same rate as patients' calls, but the Sussex service hopes to receive £1.6 million from the Government and health authorities to help it respond more quickly and efficiently.

An ongoing problem for ambulance crews has been people's misuse of the service. Medics are called with requests to fluff up pillows and bring people their shopping.

As well, many people use non-urgent ambulance vehicles to get to hospital when they could take taxis or public transport.

NHS trusts are involved with a review of non-urgent transport which would free more paramedics to answer 999 calls, again making the overall service more effective.

East Sussex, Brighton and Hove Health Authority wants to introduce one standard set of criteria for the use of non-urgent vehicles.

Under the proposals all patients who can make their own arrangements for travel would do so and non-urgent medical vehicles would only be arranged for patients who had been assessed by specialists who agreed they needed the help of paramedics, or their condition would worsen if they travelled by car.

The exception would be groups of patients - for example, people who are elderly or have mental health problems - who needed to travel to community centres.

South Downs Health NHS Trust chief executive Andrew Horne, who is involved with the review, said: "There is a need to look at this problem.

"We would like to encourage people who would otherwise use public transport to visit the local shops or the cinema to have the same frame of mind when they are travelling to outpatients' clinics or appointments.

"The ambulance service is not a taxi service. And non-urgent transport won't stop for those in need."