Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS)

The Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) is a charitably funded air ambulance service which provides life-saving care throughout the North East, North Yorkshire, Cumbria and Isle of Man. 

• They operate two helicopters 365 days a year and also operate a night-time service in the North East and Cumbria on rapid response vehicles.
  
• The aircraft cover an area of more than 8,000 square miles and on board are specialist doctors and paramedics who effectively bring the hospital to the patient.
  
• The level of skill and expertise of the on-board team mean they respond to the most critically ill and injured people, giving them the best chance of survival.
  
• GNAAS is a progressive organisation which has pioneered pre-hospital care in the region.
  
• The latest techniques, equipment and drugs are constantly being evaluated to ensure the charity can provide the best care possible for their patients.
  
• 2022 marked the service providing 20 years of life-saving care. Throughout this time, they have responded to more than 23,500 incidents across the region, with road traffic collisions being the most frequent type of incident responded to by the team.

The Great North Air Ambulance Service’s journey toward a Jet Suit-enabled paramedic service started in 2020 and aims to train experienced air ambulance paramedics to use the Suit to access patients in the Lake District. 

At this early stage, the training has already enabled one paramedic to complete their first free flight, safely operating the Jet Suit unassisted, with more paramedics reaching this stage soon.

The next stage will bring paramedics’ flight skills to a level where real operational experience can be assessed – and real assistance will arrive via Jet Suit paramedics in the Lake District.

The main areas of focus for the Jet Suit Paramedic would be on-site triage and urgent casualty response that should drastically improve patient stability and survivability.

 GNAAS do not receive Government funding and must therefore raise £7.7m a year through public donations to remain operational. 

In 2022 GNAAS were deployed 1,896 times, averaging at around five missions each day and a cost of £4.5k per mission