EVERY ambulance in Hampshire will be replaced in the next four years, thanks to a massive cash injection.

Service chiefs have been given £7.6m to upgrade their entire fleet of emergency vehicles.

The money will be spent over the next four years on modernising the county's stock of ambulances.

The first 20 will be on the streets by next summer and the remaining 42 will arrive in stages up to summer 2008.

The county's oldest, N-registration ambulances will be the first to be replaced with the new models, which will include state-of-the-art manual handling and lifting equipment.

Claire Severgnini, chief executive of the Hampshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust, said: "We are extremely pleased to have secured this funding, and the news is a huge boost for staff morale. It is vital that members of the public have access to a state-of-the-art clinical environment and these new ambulances will be able to provide such facilities.

"Equally, our staff spend an enormous amount of time in the vehicles, either standing by at strategic points across the county or during the course of delivering patient care, and these new vehicles will provide them with an excellent working environment."

The cash has been provided by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Strategic Health Authority.

Hampshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust will contribute £625,000 of its own cash on the new ambulances over the next four years.

A cross-section of staff were selected to decide which ambulance would be right for Hampshire and they looked at scores of vehicles used by trusts across the country. The working group will also influence where equipment will be sited.