THE rise in late-night stabbings and self-harm incidents in urban areas has led an air ambulance to expand its ground-based services.

Helicopters might be the stars of The Great North Air Ambulance (GNAA) fleet, but the rescue service is increasingly using cars to attend incidents.

Last year, out of 1,680 incidents the service responded to, GNAA flew to 799, whilst the other 881 were dealt with rapid response car. Some 618 of those incidents happened between the hours of 8pm and 8am, with the bulk of the patients overnight come from urban centres.

In 2019 there were 41 self harm incidents, 255 cardiac arrests and 161 assaults reported. Ten per cent of all reports were of stabbings.

The all night response car service currently runs only from Thursday through Sunday nights, but last year GNAA launched its Critical Care 24/7 appeal in 2019 to raise the £310,000 needed to extend the service out over the whole week.

A spokesperson for the GNAA said: “Through the day flying is the best way of getting to the scene of the most serious incidents, however due to aviation rules, the work of air ambulances is much more limited in darkness.

“With the rise in the number self harm incidents and stabbings over the last year, which occur more at night, our need for the 24 hour car service has become even more vital. Cars are needed to be able to respond quickly to a incident, but we cannot afford to pay for the additional three nights.”