Whiteknights Emergency Voluntary Service provides a free of charge urgent/emergency out-of-hours transportation service to hospitals in West Yorkshire.

Our slogan "Ride for Life" describes our operation perfectly. We ride to play our part in saving peoples lives; we ride to save the NHS money that would otherwise be wasted on taxis or expensive couriers.

We are staffed by volunteers and we depend entirety on public sponsorship and donations.

Our work can save the NHS at least £60,000 per hospital each year.

Hours of Operation

We operate from 7:00pm through to 7:00am during the week and 24 hours at weekends and bank holidays.

To use our service call the duty despatches on 07837 687237

We choose to use specially adapted Police motorcycles equiped with 'blues and twos' to give us the maximum flexibility and the best response time.

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Items Carried

We are happy to deliver any of the following items:

• Blood for transfusion, platelets, or other blood products, which must be supplied to us in an appropriate packaging.

• Blood, urine, or other tissue samples for analysis by pathology and microbiology laboratories, all of which are transported in accordance with regulation UN3373.

• Drugs, including controlled drugs, which necessitate the drugs register to be signed

• X-Rays, scans and CD-ROMs

• Patient notes

• Any small pieces of medical equipment.

• If in doubt, call us and ask

Please be mindful! we generally use motorcycles equipped with panniers and a large top box. Please do not ask us to carry a large item like a wheelchair. It simply will not fit!

All items must be signed for at pick up and delivery. We have arrangements with most of the major hospitals to use facilities such as switchboard, porters lodge or Accident & Emergency if a particular department will be closed when we pick up or deliver.

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Call Categories

When a hospital or clinic calls Whiteknights to request our help, the on-duty coordinator will log all details including contact names, pickup and delivery locations, and contents.

The coordinator will also discuss the urgency of the delivery and agree with the caller to assign one of three categories:

• Non Urgent: Deliveries that must be made before 7:00am the next morning. These

deliveries will be completed but may take a lower priority if an urgent or emergency call is received.

• Urgent: Deliveries that must be made by a specified time.

• Emergency: Deliveries that involve a risk to a patient's life. These are the highest priority

and are the only ones that justify the use of blue lights and sirens. Please select this category with care and only when absolutely necessary.

If you wish to use our service be sure to have all the details available. If anything changes while the rider is en-route to you then please be sure to let either the coordinators or rider know. We will be happy to change the category of a call if circumstances change e.g. a patient's condition deteriorates and a delivery needs to be changed from Urgent to Emergency.

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Health & Safety

Whiteknights takes the topic of health and safety very seriously and has produced its own health and safety manual. Each bike is equipped with UN3373 compliant containers to hold any biological items, such as blood or tissue samples, that might pose an infection hazard to the rider, or anyone who might come into contact with them.

All deliveries are closely tracked. Riders must notify the on-duty coordinator when a delivery is completed and also when they reach home. Riders must also notify the coordinator if anything changes with the delivery e.g. at the time of pickup the rider is requested to upgrade the call from Urgent to Emergency. Riders and coordinators are also made aware of procedures to be followed in the case of spillage of any biological substance carried on the bikes.

Although it is a condition of acceptance that all riders have reached an advanced standard of riding, all riders are periodically checked to ensure that this standard is maintained and are encouraged to seek further training as appropriate. There are strong links with local advanced training organisations, including Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) groups.

Several Whiteknights members are observer or senior observer level, and others have independently recognised advanced instructor qualifications.

Whiteknights EVS has full public liability insurance cover.

Whiteknights EVS is an out of hours and free of charge courier service to the NHS.

Please note that our service may be withdrawn in extreme weather conditions as ice, snow and fog are not safe for motorcyclists. We ask for your understanding on the rare occasions that this happens.

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Contact Vic Siswick, Chairman 07837 687237

www.whiteknightsevs.org

info@whiteknightsevs.org

Registered Charity No. 1124510