NORTH Yorkshire's Ambulance Trust is celebrating coming top of the table in a survey of similar rural area trusts.

The trust came first in a value-for-money league table in a District Audit report, compiled for the Audit Commission.

Trust Finance Director Rod Green said: "In this report, our costs per emergency and urgent call-outs were put under the spotlight, and we are very pleased to see we provide the best value for money in our group.

"The report shows that our accident and emergency costs last year amounted to £5.7million involving some 52,000 call-outs or activations.

"Our average cost per call-out was a little more than £100 - which is lower than all the other rural ambulance trusts in our group."The other trusts were in rural areas with similar population densities, such as Cumbria, Lincolnshire and Wiltshire.

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