Great North Air Ambulance Service to provide 24/7 service
A rapid response vehicle will be able to deliver care every night
A long-term ambition of the Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) has been achieved: to offer a 24/7 service in the northeast of England, which will begin tonight.
Dr Chris Smith, Medical Director at GNAAS, said: “Every night we will have a paramedic and doctor team on a rapid response vehicle ready to deliver care to the people in the North East.
“The car carries the same equipment as our aircraft, so we can deliver blood, anaesthetic procedures and other advanced treatments that are normally delivered while operating on the helicopter.”
Since 2015, the Eaglescliff-based charity has had a paramedic and doctor team operating a rapid response vehicle to deliver care at night time on a Friday only.
The all-night ambulance service was originally commissioned by the North East Ambulance Service and operated on Friday and Saturdays, adding an additional night.
In 2018, this service was extended to include a further two nights (Sunday and Monday) after such high demand on the two busiest nights of the week.
However, GNAAS had the goal of covering every night of the week and from tonight, the 24/7 service begins.
David Stockton, Chief Executive Officer at GNAAS, said: “Becoming a 24/7 service has been a long-term goal of the charity, and a personal ambition of myself, so we’re very proud to finally see it come to fruition in the North East.
“Our team can now deliver a high level of pre-hospital care to the public 24 hours a day, seven days a week and we’re hoping to be able to offer the same service in Cumbria in the near future.”
Last year, the critical care team at GNAAS were deployed 538 times in the car to incidents across the North East. Now with the service covering seven nights, the team will be responding to more incidents, which requires support from the public. It currently costs the charity £7.7 million per year to keep the service operational, but to provide this 24/7 service, more funds will have to be raised.