Blood Bikes

[Liveware Problem]

I can't speak for air ambulances, but this is how my local blood bikes group described their position to me: transporting blood is funded by the NHS authorities in our area. The NHS run their own in-house transportation service for something like 18 hours a day. Out of these hours, they have an arrangement with a local taxi company who will do the transportation and handle the paperwork.

 

So no volunteers then, just paid NHS staff/taxis?

[Stocky]

Transporting blood, as in whole blood for transfusion, is only a very small part of what we do.

We are an out of hours courier service for the NHS trusts in the area we cover.

Two of the three trusts we serve, have a pair of major, general hospitals and then a number of satellite hospitals, most with just one ward.

Common jobs are:

Samples from smaller hospitals to the laboratories at the larger.

Medication and equipment from the larger hospitals to the smaller.

Samples to major hospitals out of our area, for tests not carried out at the local labs.

However we will transport anything that the NHS wants, providing that it will fit in the panniers, or strap onto the rack, of our bikes.