Tonight I was mostly volunteering to join SERV

[Patch]

Spent the evening at the SERV (http://www.serv.org.uk/) New Malden control room meeting them and understanding the importance of their work.

It looks very like I will be an Emergency Volunteer Rider every other Friday starting from December.

Please please please, if you live in anywhere close enough, see if you can spare some time to help them, they are desperately short of riders. The co-ordinator currently is covering 7 nights out of 14. it would only take a further 15 volunteers to see them upto full strength.

[amarko5]

Worthwhile cause !

wonder if there is one up here in Cumbria

so i guess we just call you nightrider then ehh :P :wink:

or vampire man "carries blood at night" :P :wink:

seriously though it's a damn good idea :thumbsup:

[DrBob]

It operates in West Sussex so I'll look at joining when I'm healed and fit.

[Baldyman]

Excellent idea, presumably as the areas covered suffer massive traffic congestion. Guess it will be a while before we see a setup in Wiltshire.

[Iansv]

None near me, if it moves out to essex, i'll happily volunteer some time

[snoopy]

Erm wait a second. I'm all for saving lives but why the hell should I have to pay petrol (taxed by the Government) to provide a service the Government doesn't provide (when I'm paying tax for that as well).

Clearly the Government doesn't care about saving lives.

[Warren]

dont get me wrong when i say this . . . as im all for helping people out . . .but its a bit worrying that there is a chairty set up for this kind of thing ?
what if the charity cant afford to run anymore ? does that mean that there wouldnt be any emergency blood supplies for the people who need them ?

[Patch]

Very good points;

The alternative to SERV is for the hospitals to pay Couriers of Taxi Drivers to do this. This comes straight out of the overall budget that a hospital has to run.

Nearly every hospital department is over budget at the moment, I was talking to the head midwife at Kingston the other day and they are £627,000 over. It could be argues that this is all down to bad management of the money but its actually down to the "health service market" created by your current government, who have determined that a birth costs £600. so they do a rough calculation of last year there was y births multiplied by £600 - a bit to keep them on their toes = budget.

Now a normal birth will cost £600 but what about when you have a difficult one? I'd estimate that the cost of my second child was closer to £20,000 a rteally critical case would cost much much more.

So how does running a bit of blood help? well it means the money can be useed on patient care not taxi fares. Its called volunteer work, you can always argue that someone should be paid to so it but sadly that is not the way of the world.

[Jabba]

So how does running a bit of blood help? well it means the money can be useed on patient care not taxi fares. Its called volunteer work, you can always argue that someone should be paid to so it but sadly that is not the way of the world.

Exactly - and why not? If they had to pay for it then they'd only put our taxes up. Patch is saving us all money :lol:

Seriously, everyone seems so short of free-time these days which is why Patch's act is a generous one. Good on you, mate :thumbsup:

[Warren]

yeah i suppose.
im not one to question how things are run as i have little understanding of where our money and tax go - just seems to me that from our point of view . . . we pay too much tax already.
from the goverments point of view . . . not enought money to spend on crucial things this country needs . . . solution . . . .give the PM some more holidays . . . give Ken livingstone a pay rise . . .. . . give the secetury an annual wage of 52,000 and give some more benefits to people who dont want to get a job .


sorry - rant over

[DrBob]

I'd do it mainly because Chi hospital put my leg back together and looked after me and in my eyes for free, the amount of tax I pay is very small as I'm still a student so I probably got more then my moneys worth and in the end the government don't have to provide a free health service.

[Nick762]

Its called volunteer work, you can always argue that someone should be paid to so it but sadly that is not the way of the world.

I first came across SERV a couple of years ago, no question about it, they do a very worthwhile job. My other half who is a midwife often ragails me with stories of women who need double figures of blood units should they haemorrhage. It can be leaking out more quickly than they can pump the stuff in and you don't want to run out...

When I was a kid and being generally crabby and selfish as kids often are, my dad used to say to me that you only get out of life what you put into it! It took me a long time to work out exactly what he meant.

Consider just how much of our social infrastructure is supported by volunteers without whom many services we take for granted would be even more overstretched than they already are. The Samaritans, Cave and Mountain Rescue, the RNLI, WRVS, school governors, hospital shops, the police, the list just goes on and on.

In my book, to expect the government to support and fund workers for every contingency is plain daft. We all live in one community and the coffers are not bottomless. If a service needs support and we are in a position to help then it's a matter of civic duty, not well meaning amateurism. Waiting around for the government to do something just fosters a dependancy culture and encourages the nanny state.

Ping... More power to your elbow!

[embee]

....... and in the end the government don't have to provide a free health service.

Sorry mate, but in case you hadn't noticed, the "Government" don't provide free anything, WE PAY FOR EVERYTHING!!!!!!!
(sorry, rant over! :wink: )

[snoopy]

Tell you what, when Tony and his Crones pump some of that billion dollar gambling money they've got coming in into worthwhile causes such as this I'll be glad to serve out my bit.

[Nick762]

Tell you what, when Tony and his Crones pump some of that billion dollar gambling money they've got coming in into worthwhile causes such as this I'll be glad to serve out my bit.

Wasn't that the idea behind the National Lottery? I guess it depends how you define a worthwhile cause... Millenium Dome, London Olympic bid.... :(

Trouble is if you wait for the politicos to get of their @rses nothing will ever get done. Unless of course it involves a threat to US oil interests...