Feature

OUR MISSION IS CLEAR - save lives and improve outcomes for patients’

Have you seen ‘blood’ bikes on your roads and wondered exactly what it is they carry? Well, it’s a lot more than you think.

In line with many similar groups nationwide South West Blood Bikes provides a free volunteer out of hours ‘It is important to understand that we are not commercial couriers,’ added Mark: ‘We exist only to emergency courier service to the NHS, and other medical supply an urgent out of hours service, and not regular facilities, using its fleet of motorcycles and cars. contracted work which the NHS use their own courier The concept of Blood Bikes dates back to 1962, when network and paid contractors for during office hours. We Margaret Ryerson, and her husband, became the first exist to step in when something is needed outside of this volunteers to help their local hospital in Wallington, arrangement.’ Surrey, using her trusted Ariel motorcycle and sidecar. South West Blood Bikes was established as a charity Chairman Mark Bentley said: ‘Our mission is clear in November 2018. The charity was conceived by a - to save lives and improve outcomes for patients by number of riders who previously volunteered with a supporting healthcare providers where rapid movement similar charity elsewhere within the county. They had of the items we transport will achieve this. concerns about the way in which that organisation was ‘In addition, Blood Bike charities save the NHS, and being operated and decided to break away and set up a Hospices they serve, hundreds new and separate organisation of thousands of pounds every which was more transparent year. If we were not providing in its operation, had no paid this service, they would be staff, and made no charge for its forced to use expensive private service. This is a fundamental couriers or even taxis to do the principle of the Blood Bike same job.’ charities nationwide. South West Blood Bikes are the Today, its founder and trustee, only such service in Devon to Michael Freeman, remains as a be members of the Nationwide volunteer rider with the charity, Association of Blood Bikes, but handed responsibility for meaning they have been the day-to-day operation of vetted and found to meet their the charity to Chairman, Mark standards of operation, and Bentley. Mark is an experienced form part of a chain of Blood manager with operational Bikes covering the whole of the UK and Ireland – and experience, and also has significant experience of running can move items quickly nationwide by working in relay charities – as well as being the first rider SWBB brought with the NABB groups in each county. on board following its formation. The volunteers move Whole Blood, Pathology and The charity has 54 working volunteers at this time, Microbiology samples, Donor Breast Milk, Medical most of whom are actively involved in riding or driving Records and X-Rays, Medical Equipment and Test Kits, to provide the service. The only members who do not and medications including controlled drugs - in fact actively carry out Blood Bike missions for the service are anything that is required urgently by a medical facility, six volunteer controllers, who take and allocate the calls providing it can fit on a motorcycle! received, and four fundraisers. The remaining volunteers The service is from 5pm to 7am weekdays and provides are all directly involved with providing the service on a 24-hour cover during weekends and public holidays. rota basis. 24-hour cover was maintained during periods of national The group initially commenced operation from a unit in lockdown due to Covid-19. Plymouth, which is still in use today, but it has expanded,

“The volunteers move Whole Blood, Pathology and Microbiology samples, Donor Breast Milk, Medical Records and X-Rays, Medical Equipment and Test Kits, and medications including controlled drugs - in fact anything that is required urgently by a medical facility, providing it can fit on a motorcycle! ”

with teams based at Torbay and North Devon District Hospital in Barnstaple. Demand for the charity’s services during the Covid-19 crisis has been ‘huge’. Mark added: ‘On top of our usual work, we have also been assisting University Hospitals Trust by taking Covid-19 Test Kits to patients’ homes, waiting while they perform the tests, and taking these to a Microbiology lab for testing. We have carried out literally thousands of these tests, at no cost to the NHS, and dealing with Covid patients face to face also involves a signifi cant personal risk for our volunteer riders. We are the only Blood Bike service used by UHP Trust, and have just in fact signed a new two year service level agreement with them. ‘In addition to this, other ways we have supported the community include delivering urgent medications to the vulnerable shielding patients. When lockdown started, the community pharmacies were overwhelmed with delivery requests over and above normal levels and our volunteers stepped in to help with this, and we carried out around 1,000 deliveries in the fi rst few weeks of lockdown.’ But this has had an adverse eff ect on the charity’s fi nances. ‘A Blood Bike charity generally raises funds by physical collections - and of course lockdown meant that we were immediately unable to do this. The current high fuel costs are also adding to this pressure, and as we have now taken on signifi cant work, this is driving pressure on our funding also.’ The fi nancial benefi t to the NHS is hard to quantify for the charity, but during March 2022 SWBB vehicles completed 187 jobs and covered 3,900 miles. This gives an estimated saving of £7,500 (at £40 per collection) to the NHS and improved outcomes for approximately 960 patients. ‘We believe therefore we save the local NHS Trusts and Hospices around £90k per annum, which can be used instead on patient care. This is based on our current capability but we estimate once our full potential is realised that saving could rise to £250k.’ Despite starting only three years ago, South West Blood Bikes has grown from a very small operation, just three riders and bikes, to what it is today, and the charity is immensely proud of the work that the volunteers undertake. ‘Our founder had a clear vision that our service will always be free to use, will be transparent and open in its operation, and that no-one will benefi t fi nancially from being involved with the

Mark Anstis (West Team Manager), Matt Newton (Volunteer charity, and we are proud to Driver), Tedward Bear – the Mascot, and Mark Bentley (Chairman) carry on this tradition. ‘Our view is that we will always have cover available to all the major hospitals in Devon, and that our teams will be able to respond to urgent calls within a very short time of being asked for help. We are lucky to have a fantastic band of volunteers making this possible, and we will continue to develop our service based on the changing needs of our users to ensure we support the NHS and Hospices we serve to help save lives and improve patient outcomes. ‘Our volunteers give much more than their time too. A little known fact is that of the ten liveried Blood Bikes we operate, seven of these were purchased by volunteers within the group and donated to the charity.’ n Lindsay Turpin

For more information: Visit www.swbb.org.uk or fi nd them on Facebook ‘South West Blood Bikes’.