The Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) is a registered charity and

air ambulance Air medical services is a comprehensive term covering the use of air transportation, aeroplane or helicopter, to move patients to and from healthcare facilities and accident scenes. Personnel provide comprehensive prehospital and emergency and cri ...

based in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. It operates a dedicated helicopter emergency service for the North of England with three aircraft. It serves

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...

, the North-East,

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. C ...

, and the Scottish borders.

Current Operations

GNAAS operates three Dauphin helicopters from its two bases at

Langwathby Langwathby is a village and civil parish in northern Cumbria, England, about north east of Penrith on the A686 road. The village lies on the east bank of the River Eden. At the 2001 census the parish had a population of 748, increasing to 8 ...

, near Penrith in

, and

Urlay Nook Urlay Nook is a village in the County Durham, England. It is part of the Egglescliffe parish in the borough of Stockton-on-Tees. The village is dominated by the site of the former Elementis chromium chemicals plant and the Admiralty Ecology Si ...

, near Eaglescliffe in County Durham. Between July and December 2021, the service had an average of 85 helicopter call-outs per month. Air ambulance at Patterdale - geograph

In hours of darkness, when the helicopters do not fly,

North East Ambulance Service The North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (NEAS) is an NHS foundation trust responsible for providing NHS ambulance services in North East England. Headquartered in Newcastle upon Tyne, NEAS provides emergency medical services to t ...

funds a Medical Emergency Response Incident Team (MERIT), which is staffed by a doctor and paramedic team from GNAAS. The MERIT service extended in November 2018 to cover Thursday to Sunday Nights, which were previously covered on an on-call basis. The service uses

Volvo XC90 The Volvo XC90 is a mid-size luxury SUV manufactured and marketed by Volvo Cars since 2002 and now in its second generation. The first generation was introduced at the 2002 North American International Auto Show and used the Volvo P2 platform ...

vehicles. In 20142015, GNAAS had operating costs of £4.6million and an income of £6.2million. In 20202021, the operating costs were £5.2million against an income of £8.5million, which included a total of £308,000 from government contracts and grants. In 2020, GNAAS began trials in using jet suits to get from landed helicopters on call-outs to casualties in locations difficult to access. The simulation exercise showed a casualty, whose position it would take 25 minutes to reach on foot, could be reached in a jet suit in 90 seconds.

History

The air ambulance service began in 1994 with the leased

Eurocopter AS350 Écureuil The Eurocopter AS350 Écureuil (or Squirrel), now Airbus Helicopters H125, is a single-engine light utility helicopter originally designed and manufactured in France by Aérospatiale and Eurocopter (now Airbus Helicopters). In North America, ...

helicopter G-NAAS. MBB Bo 105 helicopters were operated from 2003, and an

MD 902 The MD Helicopters MD Explorer is a light twin-engined utility helicopter designed and initially produced by the American rotorcraft specialist McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Systems. On 18 December 1992, the maiden flight was conducted, initial ...

from 2006. 2006 also saw the introduction of the first Dauphin helicopter, G-HEMS. In 2010, the charity consolidated around a fleet of 3 Dauphin N2 helicopters, which were the first aircraft it owned. This ended the practice of leasing aircraft, which created financial issues. Two of these three Dauphin N2 helicopters were later replaced by newer Dauphin N3 helicopters G-NHAD and G-NHAE between 2019 and 2020. This was done to mitigate the risk involved with flying older aircraft.

In the media

From 8 March 2018, the charity appeared on Channel 4's TV programme ''

Emergency Helicopter Medics An emergency is an urgent, unexpected, and usually dangerous situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or environment and requires immediate action. Most emergencies require urgent intervention to prevent a worsening ...

'', which followed the crews responding and treating emergency patients. Other air ambulances that featured in the show include

Thames Valley Air Ambulance The Thames Valley Air Ambulance (TVAA), previously the Thames Valley and Chiltern Air Ambulance, is an organisation providing emergency medical services through the provision of a helicopter-based air ambulance covering the counties of Berkshi ...

and

East Anglian Air Ambulance The East Anglian Air Ambulance (EAAA) is an air ambulance providing Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) across the English counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire. The appeal to fund the service was launched in ...

References

External links

* * {{Air ambulances in the United Kingdom Air ambulance services in England Charities based in County Durham Northern England

Current Operations

History

In the media

See also

References

External links