Another issue worthy of note is the casevac facility that NE asu provides to the region, and region I mean the neighbouring forces too.
The 2 aircraft often work in direct support of the local air ambulances, and will help out whenever asked. However once the helimeds are hangared up at night the only available resources to do this are the NE asu aircraft. SAR is an option but I understand they are on standby at night of around 30-60 minutes response time. I will stand corrected folks ?
The NE asu have excellent comms facilities and subsequently are aware of any unfolding incidents more or less as they happen, subsequently their response times are measured in how long it takes to re-role the aircraft and head off. So while SAR offers infinitely more expertise at scene with their highly skilled crews, they will generally always be 30-60 minutes behind a NE asu aircraft.
The Golden Hour Gets Longer
This is not a "poke" at any other of the emergency services available to the North east region, The NE asu is part of the big pie that lies over the good folk of this region, other pie members are the North East Air Ambulance & the RAF. The NE asu works very efficiently not only at catching criminals, but also works very well alongside more specialist trauma care, at scenes of major incidents/road accidents etc etc.
The pie is being sliced up, a smaller pie is no good to anyone, a smaller pie does not feed as many people, a smaller pie satisfies nobody, A smaller pie is cheaper.
The moral behind this post ?
Nobody likes a small pie ! , Especially a small cheap pie !