South West Blood Bikes is an essential part of UHP
As you may already know, South West Blood Bikes (SWBB) is a remarkable Plymouth-based charity who utilise the motorbike skills they have for the benefit of the service that they provide, with a fleet of ten liveried blood bikes.
South West Blood Bikes comprises of teams in Plymouth, Torbay, and North Devon to cover all Trusts across these areas. This impressive service is run entirely by volunteers who cover a seven day-rota, 365 days a year to provide an out of hours service to support NHS Trusts to transport essential urgent supplies such as blood, pathology samples, medication, medical equipment and notes and occasionally donor breast milk to the NHS hospitals and hospices throughout Devon and beyond, at absolutely no cost. It doesn’t stop there, they also have two four-wheel-drive cars for inclement weather, as well as a support van which can be used as an on-call vehicle if needed, or for events.
Since 2020, SWBB has hugely supported University Hospitals Plymouth (UHP) and has recently signed a new two-year service level agreement with Luke Mills, Logistics Manager, to enable them to safely continue supporting all of the sites throughout our Trust. The premise is simple, the Trust calls the on-call phone number and asks SWBB to assist with the transportation of whatever is required- this could be an essential piece of equipment such as a ventilator, or an urgent supply of blood needed for an emergency.
Luke explains, “Having this agreement offers renewed reassurance to the Trust that we are working in partnership with a reputable organisation that strives to uphold the same values as ourselves. The SWBB team offer a vital service and play an extremely important role in keeping things moving. They have such a positive attitude towards the tasks and situations they are presented with and they really do make a difference. They are able to deal with a wide range of transport requests and really should be our first port of call, be it pathology samples or ward-to offsite transportation.”
“These confident and trustworthy drivers adhere to high professional standards and truly integrate seamlessly into our needs as a Trust and we are really grateful to have them.”
If you would like to find out more, or feel that you would like to either volunteer or contribute to the ongoing success of the team, please visit their website: https://www.swbb.org.uk/
On their website, they also have comprehensive details of the ongoing fundraising events being held throughout Devon to support the remarkable work that they are doing in the community.
