Waveney MP Peter Aldous joined three of his constituents as they began evening duty as volunteer riders for SERV Norfolk, a Blood Bike Charity covering James Paget, Norfolk & Norwich and the Queen Elizabeth Hospitals on Thursday evening.

 

David Eyers of Bungay, Ian Byrne, Rector in charge of Trinity Church in Bungay & Jon Doran from Worlingham, are three of the volunteers who provide free of charge to the NHS an out of hours Emergency courier service, transporting Blood, platelets, plasma, samples, donor breast milk, & any other items that will fit on a bike and are of direct benefit to a patient.

 

SERV Norfolk is responding to a very real need from hospitals in our area, who spend significant sums on out of hours transport in the evening and at weekends and may otherwise have to rely on taxis or private sector couriers to transport these items including urgent diagnostic samples or blood.  This year they expect to carry out over 1000 tasks for our hospitals, all completely free of charge, allowing hospitals to spend more money on patient care.

 

The charity is also about to start working with the East Anglian Air Ambulance, providing a daily blood delivery service which will enable the helicopters to carry blood on board, meaning  they can perform transfusions at the roadside giving patients a much higher chance of survival from a trauma.

 

Rider/Volunteer David Eyers commented: “We are all volunteers, trained to advanced riding standards and use police spec liveried motorbikes. We are also trained in the handling of blood & blood products and biological samples.  We all have our reasons for doing this, but most of us just want to give something back to the NHS by using  our riding skills & spare time.”

 

Peter Aldous commented about his ride out with David, Ian and Jon: “My evening with the Blood Bikes gave me a very helpful insight in to the valuable service which they provide. Whilst we were not called in to action, David and Ian told me about their work which involves 12 hour night time and weekend shifts transporting blood, plasma and samples between the region’s hospitals and to the research laboratory in North London. Very often time is of the essence in order to enable life saving operations to take place.

 

“ In providing this entirely voluntary service SERV Norfolk are freeing up funds for the NHS to spend on patient care and taking this in to account it does not appear right that at present they pay VAT on their costs, a substantial part of which is fuel. I’ll be asking the Treasury to review this.  They are doing great work and if anyone is interested in getting involved they would very much like to hear from them.”

 

About  SERV:  Service by Emergency Rider Volunteers was originally established  in Surrey in 1981, SERV Norfolk was set up in early 2011 and went live in September of 2011. They provide a service to the James Paget, Norfolk & Norwich and the Queen Elizabeth Hospitals and work in partnership with many other blood bike groups including SERV Suffolk & Cambridgeshire. 

 

SERV Norfolk is a registered charity (#1148669) who rely totally on funding from charitable organisation, business sponsorship and the general public to fund in order to be able to carry out their work.

 

www.servnorfolk.org.uk   or on Facebook search for SERV Norfolk

 

SERV Norfolk is a full member of NABB (The Nationwide Association of Blood Bikes) see www.bloodbikes.org.uk