HAMPSHIRE Ambulance Service will soon be no more and from the ashes will rise Hampshire and Thames Valley Ambulance Service - or possibly the Thames Valley and Hampshire Ambulance Service.

The local service is set to be subsumed into a regional organisation that includes Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

The proposed name is South Central Ambulance Service but a board meeting in Winchester heard that the name could change.

Hampshire board chairman Tony Barron said discussions were taking place on another name. Hampshire and Thames Valley or Thames Valley and Hampshire were being considered but the board heard that a private ambulance company is already called Thames Valley and Hampshire so this one was unlikely to be chosen.

Mr Barron stressed: "The public will notice no difference; they will dial 999 and get a Hampshire person. It will be some time before even the badge changes."

He said Hampshire would be one of three divisions within the new trust. Its new chief executive will be William Hancock, who runs the ambulance service in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire. The chairman will be Neil Goulden, currently chairman in Berkshire.

The Hampshire chief executive Claire Severgnini will see her post disappear from the merger on July 1.

The last meeting of the Hampshire Ambulance Service board will take place on June 27.

Meanwhile, the service continues to make good progress in several areas of operation.

Response times for emergencies are consistently beating targets despite a six per cent increase in demand over the last 12 months.

The service expects to answer 158,000 calls in 2006, up from 149,000 in 2005.

It will also make a small surplus and plans to knock £1.9m off its underlying £4.4m deficit.