The Great North Air Ambulance Service is one step closer to providing critical care 24/7 in Cumbria after expanding its all-night rapid response vehicle service to four nights a week.
The service launched its night-time service in May 2021 on Friday and Saturday nights from 8pm to 8am, when the charity’s air ambulances do not fly.
The car carries the same life-saving equipment as its airborne counterpart and is staffed by a highly skilled paramedic and doctor team who can deliver blood, anaesthetic procedures, and other advanced treatments to critically ill or injured patients.
Last year, the critical care team was deployed 154 times on a rapid response vehicle to incidents in Cumbria, including traffic collisions and cardiac arrests.
The charity has been working hard to fund the additional nights, and recently expanded to cover Thursday and Sunday nights.
GNAAS has operated an overnight service in the North East for several years and at the start of 2023 they began working every night of the week so that no matter when someone is in need, the team are able to respond.
David Stockton, chief executive officer of 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 continue that journey.
“Our team can now deliver a high level of pre-hospital care to the public 24 hours a day, seven days a week in the North East, and we are now covering seven days and four nights in Cumbria, with an expectation to add more evenings over the coming months.”
The charity has recruited paramedics and specialist doctors who are now working through the charity’s training and evaluation process. It takes between six and nine months for them to be signed off.
