Great North Air Ambulance could work round the clock from 2023

The life-saving charity has bases in Teesside and Cumbria

There are hopes the Great North Air Ambulance Service will operate 24 hours and seven days a week from 2023.

It comes after the charity was rated "outstanding" by Care Quality Commission inspectors.

Andy Mawson, director of operations, said barring "any major curve balls" the plan to extend the service in the new year "will come to fruition".

"Everything is becoming more expensive but we are not letting that stop us," he told BBC Radio Tees.

The air ambulance is a charity providing emergency and critical care across north-east England, Cumbria and North Yorkshire by helicopter or rapid response vehicles.

At present helicopters only fly during daylight hours, with rapid response road vehicles working through the night.

It costs £6.7m a year to run and in 2021 it was called out almost 1,700 times.

Mr Mawson, who is also a paramedic with the service, said: "We have just recorded our busiest summer on record which, again, against the backdrop of the financial pressure is difficult.

"However it does mean that our service is being used more and we are getting to those patients who need us.

"By early next year we will be seven nights a week in the North East, and not far behind in Cumbria as well. That has been a huge undertaking."

Inspectors were impressed by how staff treated patients with "compassion and kindness"

New doctors and paramedics have been recruited and more infrastructure has been developed, Mr Mawson added.

The charity has two sites, based at Progress House in Eaglescliffe, Teesside, and at Langwathby, near Penrith, Cumbria.

"It's amazing to look back and think what we have achieved through Covid - currently we keep on getting better," he added.