WEST Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) has been named the highest performing ambulance trust in the country.

Provisional figures show that WMAS came top out of the 10 trusts in two of the four target categories, was second in a third category and narrowly came third in the fourth.

The trust had the highest performance in the country for the most serious calls, which includes cases such as cardiac arrests where it achieved more than 77 per cent against a target of 75 per cent.

The trust also came top for responding to 999 calls, with more than 97 per cent of calls answered within five seconds.

In the category for getting an ambulance to the most serious calls, the trust rated 97 per cent against a target of 95 per cent, coming second by less than one percentage point.

WMAS chief executive, Anthony Marsh, said: “There is no doubt that 2014-15 was an incredibly challenging year for all ambulance services, with rapidly rising demand and continued delays at hospital which have a hugely adverse impact on our ability to get to patients.

“Despite that, the fact that we have done so well is testament to the incredibly hard working staff of the Trust.

“However, getting to patients quickly is only part of the story. The level of clinical care that our staff have given to the patients they have treated is second to none. In many respects this is far more important than speed of response.

“While this is an excellent level of performance, we are in no way complacent and are the first to admit that we can make further changes to the service we deliver.

“We are continuing to move forward with developments that will improve still further the way we treat and support patients.

“This includes increasing the number of paramedics we have and taking more patients to alternative care settings other than A&E. Currently, only around 55 per cent of those patients we go out to end up going to hospital and that number is continuing to fall.

“There is little doubt that 2015-16 will be even tougher than the last 12 months, so we will be doing everything possible to ensure we protect patient care.”