Blood bike

A blood bike is a specialist motorcycle modified for use as a courier vehicle for the prompt transportation of urgent and emergency medical items; primarily including blood, and also including X-rays, tissue samples, surgical tools, human milk, spinal fluids, drugs, and documentation; between hospitals and other healthcare facilities.^[1][2][3]

In the United Kingdom and Ireland, a network of largely independent registered charities, whose members are all unpaid volunteers, provide blood bike courier services in collaboration with their local healthcare authorities. Many are represented through the Nationwide Association of Blood Bikes (NABB), itself a registered charity (number 1198195).^[4][5][6] NABB requires that its members hold advanced rider qualifications.^[2][6]

Commercially-run blood bike courier services also exist.^[7]

The first blood bike volunteer group to be established in the United Kingdom was the Emergency Volunteer Service (EVS), formed in 1962 in Surrey, England, by Margaret Ryerson and her husband.^[2] In 1969, the Freewheelers youth community action group formed in Stevenage which initially served hospitals in Stevenage, Luton, Dunstable, Bedford, and Hitchin.^[2] These original groups are no longer operating, but other groups emerged that provide similar services.

Yeovil Freewheelers was founded in 1978.^[8] In 1981, SERV (Service by Emergency Response Volunteers),^[2] which formed shortly after the original EVS disbanded, and the North East Thames Region Emergency Voluntary Service (also known as the EVS) in north-east London, were founded. North East Thames Region EVS disbanded in November 1998, but SERV continues to operate as a number of different groups.^{[citation needed]}

The Nationwide Association of Blood Bikes was established in 2008 to promote professional standards across all the member blood bike groups.^[9]

As an example of the scale of their operations, in 2010, one group made 2,500 deliveries at a cost of around £25,000, paid for by charitable donations, which according to NABB saved the NHS over £120,000.^[2] There are no exact figures for how much blood bikes save the NHS annually, however NABB estimates that it was approximately £1.4 million in 2016 from its 56,000 blood bike journeys.^[3][10]

In the August 2018 Budget, the government introduced Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) exemption for blood bikes vehicles, effective from April 2020, "to align the tax treatment of the transportation of blood and medical supplies by the national charity Blood Bikes with other emergency vehicles".^[11][12] However, blood bikes cannot use blue lights and sirens, unlike the three statutory emergency services as NABB's application to use them has been rejected.^[13]

In 2019, Warwickshire and Solihull Blood Bikes, which started in 2012, was told that University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust was dispensing with its services, and would be replaced by a commercial contract with QE Facilities, a subsidiary company of Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust.^[14]

There are a number of blood bike groups operating in the UK and Ireland.^[15] These include:

Blood bike charities in England include:

• Freewheelers EVS^[16] – Bath, Bristol, Gloucestershire (south), Somerset, West Wiltshire
• Greater Manchester Blood Bikes^[17][18] – Greater Manchester
• Nottinghamshire Blood Bikes – Nottinghamshire
• SERV – various areas
• Severn Freewheelers^[19] – Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Wiltshire, Worcestershire
• Whiteknights Yorkshire Blood Bikes^[20] – Yorkshire

• ScotsERVS (Scottish Emergency Rider Volunteer Service)^[21]
• Blood Bikes Scotland
• North East Rider Volunteers Scotland SCIO (NERVS)^[22]

• Blood Bikes Wales^[23][24]

• Blood Bike Leinster^{[25][26][27][28][29]} — Leinster Ireland, motto: 'riding to save lives'.

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Inspired by the UK model, Blood Bikes Australia was founded in Brisbane, Queensland, in September 2019, with a run by Peter Davis for the Mater Hospital. Since then, the number of qualified volunteers has risen rapidly across the country.

Several groups in the United Kingdom have received The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service, which is equivalent in status as an MBE:^[1]

The first Blood Bike Awareness Day took place on Friday 14 August 2015,^[38] with initial support provided by O2 and has continued annually since. It is to be held on the Friday closest to 14 August. Reasons for this include it being the mirror to 14 February and St Valentine's day with its association with the heart and thus blood, being summer the news cycle is often devoid of political stories and there is a greater propensity for journalists to fill airtime with such awareness days also compounded by Fridays being shown even more inclined to cover such local news topics.^[39]

Motorcyclists are classified as vulnerable road users, as when the casualty and fatality numbers are adjusted to passenger miles covered, it is the most dangerous form of transport when compared to walking, cycling, and various four wheeled motor vehicles.^[40] Two blood bike riders have been involved in fatal accidents:

• 28 November 2016 — Martin Dixon of Bloodrun EVS (Cleveland and North Yorkshire) was killed while on duty in a traffic collision.^[41]
• 5 May 2018 — Russell Curwen of North West Blood Bikes was killed while on duty in a traffic collision.^[42] In 2019, a laboratory at Royal Lancaster Infirmary run by University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust was named in Curwen's memory - The Russell Curwen Pathology Laboratory.^[43] In 2023, following questions asked at Curwen's inquest, it was revealed that he had been using illegally-fitted blue lights and sirens at the time of the accident.^[44]

• Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom
  • National Health Service
  • NHS Blood And Transplant
• Emergency medical services in Ireland

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Blood bikes.

• The Nationwide Association of Blood Bikes — the umbrella charity representing blood bikes in the United Kingdom