No Christmas break for Blood Runners
Added on Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments
The blood runners volunteers will be working throughout the holidays to deliver blood to NHS hospitals.
Whilst you sit down to Christmas dinner with your families this weekend, spare a thought for the motorcycle ‘Blood Runners’, who will be volunteering their life saving services throughout the Christmas holidays.
Motorbike ‘blood runners’ are a team of volunteers who will be on call over the Christmas period providing a little known service that can help to save thousands of lives, collecting and delivering life-saving blood to hospitals across the UK.
The blood runners, who volunteer on a rota of one night in fourteen, respond to around 2,000 emergency calls per year, saving the Health Service on average £300,000.
And the team of riders will providing a full 24 hour service on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day this year.
Riders are on stand-by in many areas across the country including: Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Kent, Essex, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Northants, Surrey, Sussex, Hampshire and London. The regions work in partnership to ensure an efficient system can deliver the blood as quickly as possible. Since 1981 when the blood runners charity was founded, more than 16,000 packets of blood have been carried. The service also ensures that fully trained riders can safely deliver their precious cargo, saving the NHS time and money on ambulances or expensive couriers.
If the blood needs to be delivered to a hospital in another county, the main rider will to go to the blood bank, whilst the office calls the duty coordinator of the county that covers the area the hospital is in. The coordinator then dispatches their duty rider from his/her home to a transfer point to await the arrival of the main rider. The riders always follow a set route to reduce any delays, in case of any breakdowns or other problems.
The demands on the charity increase every year and there is a need to spread the service across the country, but it is restricted by its ability to fund and maintain the service. The volunteers are ready to back the service, so now the charity needs to work to secure the funding.
“Motorcycles have an important part to play in saving lives,” said MCI spokesperson Sheila Rainger. “As well as being used by the emergency services, these blood runners provide an essential service free of charge and often will little recognition.
“With help this service can grow and help to save more lives, save hospitals money as well as providing a quick and reliable means of transporting emergency blood at night.”
Dean Wickham, SERV Chairman added ”Without our dedicated volunteers we would not be able to supply this much needed service. Every member is an asset to this charity and are worth their weight in gold”!!
For more information about the charity and the work of the blood runners go to www.serv.org.uk
Loading ...
No Comments