The National Health Service does not have unlimited resources. One area that is very costly to the NHS is courier services. Most hospitals operate an internal courier service to ferry diagnostic specimens, blood, notes, x-rays, scans and other medical equipment between themselves and other hospitals in the area. These services generally operate during office hours, which means that in the evening and at weekends the hospitals need to make alternative provision for items that need to be transported there and then.

Blood bikes will do this for free saving the NHS thousands of pounds annually..

We are staffed entirely by volunteers, that depends entirely on public sponsorship and donations. Our service saves the NHS thousands per year. This saving goes back to the NHS for patiant care.

Hours of Operation

We operate 365 days a year from 7:00pm through to 7:00am during the week and 24 hours at weekends and bank holidays.

We choose to use specially adapted motorcycles to give us the maximum flexibility and the best response time, however there are times when it would be unsafe to operate a motorcycle e.g. in thick fog, during snow storms, or other extremes of weather. Our riders operate in all but the very worst weather, so we ask for your understanding if we are unable to operate for rider safety reasons.

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 the appropriate insulated packaging. Our bikes are fitted with a rack so that we can take the largest insulated box with ease.

• Blood, urine, or other tissue samples for analysis by pathology and microbiology laboratories,

• X-Rays, scans and CD-ROMs

• Patient notes

• Any other medical items or small pieces of medical equipment such as syringes

Please bear in mind we use bikes equipped with panniers and an external rack , so don't ask us to carry a large item like a wheelchair.

All items must be signed for at pick up and delivery. We have arrangements with the 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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