The Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) has been rated ‘outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The CQC inspect every health care facility in the country to make sure their service is fit to purpose.

They rate each facility either inadequate, requiring improvement, good right up to the highest achievement, which is outstanding.

Outstanding ratings are exceedingly rare with last month less than one per cent of providers rated as such by the CQC.

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“This is an incredible achievement in any healthcare environment, but in a complex air ambulance service it is amazing” David Stockton, chief executive officer at GNAAS said.

“Credit has to go to the whole team in Operations who have put an unbelievable effort into the submission for the CQC, and the upholding of exacting standards.”

“It is absolutely deserved, and hard earned, but validates the incredible work of our teams every day.”

News and Star: GNAASGNAAS (Image: Newsquest)GNAAS is a charity and can only operate its emergency service across Cumbria, the North East and North Yorkshire through the generosity of the public’s donations.

Since registering as a charity in 2002, the service has responded more than 23,500 times across the region to different incidents, with road traffic collisions being the most frequent type of incident responded to by their critical care team.

“To have been awarded ‘Outstanding’ is a huge achievement” Andy Mawson, director of operations at GNAAS, said.

“Whilst our teams responding by helicopter and rapid response vehicle are the most visible part of our service, and the care that we deliver the most important to our communities, there is a massive workload behind the scenes to make our service truly outstanding.”

“Every single person that has ever supported our cause has enabled this.”

“From our lottery players to our corporate partners, our donors to our legacies, our runners to our communities.”

“This is your success too so we just want to say thank you and we will continue to make you proud.”

 

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