PATIENTS across Dorset are set to benefit from a £500,000-funding boost for South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust.

Capital government funding has been secured to buy replacement equipment for ambulances that serve the trust’s estimated 31,000 patients across Dorset, Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly, Devon and Somerset.

The cutting edge equipment includes Electrocardiography (ECG) machines, which give an interpretation of the electrical activity of the heart over a period of time, non-invasive blood pressure (BP) equipment and pulse oximeters, which indirectly monitor oxygen levels in the blood and also displays the heart rate.

Both of these assessments are conducted in every patient contact.

The money will also fund hospital receiving units and telemetry to enable the patient’s key health readings to be recorded and electronically transmitted to the receiving department. Trust director of delivery, Norma Lane said: “I have no doubt that this extra capital funding will benefit our patients.

“Our aim is to provide the right care in the right place at the right time and I am confident that the equipment this investment can provide will further support us in fulfilling this.”

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: “We have saved money in central capital budgets this year which means we can spend more money on improving NHS facilities.

“This will mean that more patients treated by South Western Ambulance Service clinicians will benefit from the latest equipment.”