THE GREAT NORTH AIR AMBULANCE SERVICE

The Great North Air Ambulance Services The Imperial Centre, Grange Road, Darlington, DL1 5NQ Registered Charity No.1092204 Registered Company No. 4436859 Tel:01325 487263 Fax:01325 489819  

About the Great North Air Ambulance Service About GNAAS:-
The Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) operates three helicopters based at Teesside, Cumbria and Northumberland. It has been proven time and time again that helicopters are vital for the transportation of time-critical injured or ill patients to specialising hospitals, and it is the aim of GNAAS to provide the people of the north with the best quality care available to them, which is what they deserve.


Why GNAAS needs your support:
The Great North Air Ambulance Service receives no government or lottery funding, relying solely on the generosity of the public, in addition to it’s own business income generation streams.
GNAAS is the only air ambulance charity to:
Contract and operate three helicopters. Directly employ our own Paramedics to ensure consistency of standards. Consistently crew with Specialist Doctors. Have our own role specific Clinical and Operational Procedures (SOPs). Develop direct access, allowing other emergency service personnel and suitably qualified individuals to directly task the helicopter without the need to go through Ambulance service control thereby saving precious minutes. Develop and deliver a comprehensive university accredited training course for paramedics and doctors. Engage a Clinical Advisory Group specifically for air ambulance operations. Develop and deliver specialist courses for police firearms and traffic units. Be accepted as a training secondment for registrars (Drs) from the regions Specialist Training Committee. Be recognised by The Royal College of Anaesthetists as a provider of Continued Professional Development. 

What does the Charity provide?GNAAS provides a 7 day per week 10-hour per day helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) that provides:

·         Primary medical response

·         Secondary medical response

·         Acute hospital transfers

·         Specialist medical team transfers

·         Support medical services for police firearms teams and mountain search and rescue teams.

·         Emergency medical training.

Patient care is of course, and will always remain, an absolute priority for GNAAS. It takes an average of one hour for a seriously ill or injured person to see a consultant. It takes GNAAS an average of 15 minutes to get a consultant to a seriously or injured person, ensuring that the people of the region receive the highest standard of clinical care available to them. 
What does it cost to operate the helicopters? It costs approximately £1.2m per annum to operate ONE helicopter.

However the helicopter is only part of the overall cost of providing an air ambulance SERVICE. The costs relating to the clinical and operational aspects of the service, comprise of the helicopter lease, flying hour charge, fuel, pilotage, unscheduled maintenance, landing fees, hangarage, insurances, medical crew, equipment, medicines, consumables and operational bases. To remove any one of these, the charity could not operate a helicopter emergency medical SERVICE.

What are our aims?
To further develop our income generation activities and encourage continued public support without which this invaluable service will fail.
To constantly strive to deliver the highest standards of critical care in the pre-hospital environment for the people of this region. 

What motivates GNAAS to provide this level
of service:


 

This is just one reason:-

16 yr old Robyn Wishart was involved a serious car accident.
She sustained a  fractured skull, serious neck and back injuries,
broken bones to her face, legs and ankle, and underwent 10
hours of intensive surgery. 7 months later Robyn is able to walk.
HOW? Robyn’s injuries were life threatening. It was doubtful
whether she would survive. GNAAS flew her to JamesCookHospital, Middlesbrough. Within 4 hours she had been seen by 7 teams of surgeons received emergency medicine and intensive care. Mark Wishart, Robyn’s father said “without The Great North Air Ambulance Service, his daughter would not be alive today”.

TO DONATE:

http://www.greatnorthairambulance.co.uk/pages/donate