HAMPSHIRE Ambulance Service has today pledged to meet all government targets for response times.

The promise comes after the Daily Echo revealed it had taken almost an hour for an ambulance to reach a mum giving birth to a premature baby which later died.

James Mazzoni-Dalton, from Halterworth, near Romsey, called an ambulance after his wife Helen went into labour three months early.

But no local crews were available to come to the couple's assistance, so a vehicle from Ringwood - some 30 miles away - was called to the scene.

Baby Lee, who was born weighing just one pound, 13 ounces, was rushed to hospital for treatment, but sadly died two weeks later.

Mr and Mrs Mazzoni-Dalton, have praised the actions of the ambulance crew who attended the incident, in the early hours of October 17, and stressed they do not blame the ambulance service for their baby's death.

But Hampshire Ambulance NHS Trust has already launched a thorough investigation into what happened.

Spokeswoman Alison Roughton told the Daily Echo that patients across the county should not worry about ambulances responding to emergency calls.

She said: "Hampshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust will continue to deliver to the community of Hampshire an ever-improving service and will meet its responsibilities to deliver government performance standards.

"It appears that there was an exceptional set of circumstances as the organisation does have available rapid response vehicles, basic doctors and support managers to respond to the public of Hampshire.

"Please be assured that when anybody dials 999 they will receive an appropriate response in a timely manner."

Ms Roughton said a full investigation into the incident was already under way.

She added: "It was a Friday night/Satur-day morning so we need to look at where all the ambulances were and what was happening.

"We are going to look at the whole night shift, what we were doing and where we were. It was an extremely busy evening.

"It wasn't a category A call. Obviously we take every call very seriously, but this came in as a 999 call so we should have been there within 19 minutes."

Romsey town councillor Mark Cooper said he was aware there were problems with the ambulance service.

He said: "I think there's been an awful lot done to improve the service, but there are obviously still problems.

"It's up to the ambulance service to make sure that these problems don't still occur."