Ambulance crews in Sussex are getting to critically ill people quicker.

Paramedics are responding to emergency calls within eight minutes about 77 per cent of the time.

This is higher than the Government standard of 75 per cent and managers are hopeful they will be able to sustain this level.

Industrial action over pay and conditions earlier this year meant crews refused to record response time or work outside their designated group of stations.

The 77 per cent figure is for the month after industrial action was resolved at the beginning of April.

Sussex Ambulance Service has struggled to meet the target but has made a steady improvement in recent months.

Director of operations Trevor Anderson said: "We are trying a lot of initiatives which we hope will continue to increase performance."

Eight new emergency response cars have been added to help speed up response times.

Eighteen up-to-date ambulances are due to arrive shortly.

Other changes have included a shake-up of shift patterns and placing crews on standby near known accident blackspots.

High-tech innovations such as installing all emergency ambulances with global positioning systems has also helped. These can pinpoint vehicles and give precise directions to their destination.

This has helped tackle delays when ambulance crews are unable to find the address or when they have to travel out of their normal areas.

On average, crews attend more than 450 incidents a day, rising to more than 500 at peak times.