Just signed up with S.E.R.V

[Mark_h]

SERV also deliver things like patient notes and x-rays that are not yet electronically transferrable. It's not all blood and livers these days.

This is an extract from our monthly IAM news letter and one of the members experience with being a S.E.R.V rider.

BLOODY WONDERFUL- the story of a SERV volunteer
While training for my test I worked out that I wanted to ride for SERV
(http://www.facebook.com/SERVOBN) once I passed. That was in April this year so here are a few lines
about what the first three months with them have been like.
Briefly, SERV is a charity that transports blood, plasma, platelets, samples, medication, donor breast milk
and any other urgently required medical items to hospitals - at night, daytime weekends and bank
holidays. It's organised in groups and the one I belong to (SERV OBN) covers Oxfordshire,
Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire and parts of Berkshire and started up in 2007. Prior to this the
hospital had to pay for a courier or taxi at 'out-of-normal-hours' rates. SERV provides this service
completely free of charge saving money for the NHS. The use of motorbikes means the delivery is less
exposed to traffic constraints, a particular benefit on weekends. People volunteer their time to either
despatch riders or do the riding, though, of course, there are people in many other roles that keep it
afloat. Oh, I should mention SERV OBN only accepts riders with an IAM or ROSPA qualification.
The territory splits naturally into north and south of Oxford where the National Blood Service has
facilities at the John Radcliffe (JR) hospital. There are nine hospitals that use SERV regularly, including
Milton Keynes General.
Before they're allowed to ride on behalf of the charity riders have to be trained in three areas: a) the
routes from JR to the hospitals; b) where to deliver within the hospitals; and c) the 'rules' governing the
transportation of blood products and dangerous goods. A rota is opened each month and you put
yourself down for whatever 'shifts' suit you. Overnight is 7:00pm to 6:00am and there are day shifts
during the weekend and bank holidays. SERV OBN has six marked bikes with carrier plates specifically
designed to carry the blood boxes.
My first call came through around 7:15pm to take blood samples from Northampton General to the NBS
in Birmingham. A 150 mile round trip on a pleasant summer evening and I was back home. A few calls
later and I'm sent to Wycombe General to collect some medication. Leaving home at 9:30pm it was dark
and raining. I get to WGH ok but I can't remember where it is in the hospital I have to go to collect from.
Bother, I should have paid more attention on the training run - what looked quite clear in daylight is
quite different at night when doors and signs are shrouded in darkness. Standing in the hospital car park
I consult my notes (ah, this is why I've been advised to carry a torch!) but to no avail as the entrance
shown is closed at this hour. Thankfully, the pharmacist was keeping watch for a SERV jacket and came
out to meet me.

A week or so later and I'm back at WGH to collect two medications, one for delivery to Stoke Mandeville
and the other to Buckingham Community Hospital. Stoke Mandeville gets its delivery but a call comes
through from the SERV controller while I'm there. An urgent request has come in from Milton Keynes
General to collect a box of blood from JR so, since I live in MK, she's got another rider coming to take on
the Buckingham run and I'm off to Oxford once the handover's made.
My most recent roster was a collection from JR to take blood to Northampton General then continue
north to drop off a box of platelets with Kettering General. The ‘system’ got me safely home at 1:30am.
Well, that's a flavour of what goes on. One last thing, SERV is one of several groups known as ‘blood
bikes’ and is a member of the Nationwide Association of Blood Bikes (http://www.bloodbikes.org.uk/).


Why would you want to be a SERV rider ?
It was a fairly wet and windy March evening, and I had just had a phone call from the SERV
controller for the evening asking whether I could go down to the Blood Transfusion Centre
London and bring a unit of blood up to Bedford Hospital, no hurry the blood would not be ready
until about 10:15………………………..
Well I was daft enough to put my name on the rota as available for that Monday evening, so
despite there being a good programme on the television and a nice warm fire to slouch in front
of, that was why an hour later, I had got on my protective clothes and pulled the bike out of the
garage and headed off down the A1M.
It was raining and cold, which set me hunkering down behind the screen as much as possible,
and musing on what had got me to this point…………………………………..
I belong to SERV Herts and Beds group (one of 16 Counties affiliated to the SERV Group)
which provides urgent and essential deliveries of Blood, Plasma, Platelets to 4 hospitals along
the length of the A1M/M1 Corridor between the Blood Bank in Colindale (North London) and
Bedford in the north. We also move urgent Blood Samples from these hospitals to be tested at
the Blood Centre. The Group links to other SERV groups to move similar materials from Bury St
Edmunds in the east to Bristol in the west. Also we collect samples at two Hand Over Points on
our borders from Kent, Essex, Suffolk Cambs and Norfolk taking these into” The Blood Bank”
for testing.
What does it all entail.
First you have to be trained as a new Volunteer.
Stage one is an evening session called GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) training on the
product. This entails being told what the products look like, some dos and don’ts related to the
product, limitations and service expectations, legislation, document check, measure for a hi viz
jacket. This followed by a test to make sure that you weren’t sleeping on the job, that has to be
repeated every year (once on line and once face to face), this being a MHRA requirement to
make sure you keep up to date. Second is the route training day, which includes hospital
procedures, an introduction to the routes that you are to follow between the Blood Centre and
the Hospitals (or vice versa) – reason for this is that the group would like to know where you are
likely to be in the event of a breakdown or the unthinkable, an accident. If you do not arrive at
the appropriate destination within a reasonable time of your ETA, wheels are put in motion.
Once you have delivered the product on board, then you are free to follow your own path home,
but first advising the Controller of your planned route and approximate time frame for the
journey. While all this information is being imparted your riding between each hospital is being
assessed by one of the Senior Trainers for SERV H&B. At the end of a 5hour ride/training
session you are then presented with your new SERV jacket, ID Card, Roc Straps, Receipt Book,
2x stick on Badges( can I stand under the weight) and you are ready to roll.
Like all voluntary organisations, they will take as much out of you as you are prepared to give,
but the minimum they ask for is two nights a month. I put myself on the rota one fixed evening a
week so I don’t have to keep looking at my diary to try to remember when I am on call. We have
4 riders on call every evening, and there is a duty controller who rings mid afternoon to check
you are available and that you will be there if needed. They will then only call if they have a job
for you, expect you to call them when you are ready to roll, call again when you have collected
the product from the hospital or the Blood Bank, and again when you get to your destination,
and finally when you get home – sounds a bit Nanny State, but they manage not to lose too
many riders through looking out for them. I have been a member for approx. 2 ½ years, have
rotaed nearly every Monday evening (holidays included), and have been called out
approximately 30 times in that period, so roughly once every 4 weeks.
The SERV group as a whole have been debating for some time , the advantages and
disadvantages of requiring all members to hold an IAM or ROSPA qualification. But there are
only about 40% out of 85 Rider/Drivers of the Herts and Beds group so qualified, so there is a
big reluctance to undertake that commitment, and the arguments go that with Volunteers being
on call from 7:00pm round to 6:00am, the correlation between IAM training and SERV
requirements could be seen to be limited. My group of Herts and Beds have this year committed
money to training and have commenced a series of one day “Bikesafe Courses” with the Met
police and hope to get all riders through by the end of this year. Those that have attended the
first courses have found it informative and enjoyable as all police officers that run the course are
keen bikers in their private lives as well.
What do I get out of it ? That is the difficult one, especially on a wet and windy winter night
(Bikes don’t get called out if the temperature falls to +2 degrees, but they welcome car driving
volunteers too, and you can get more than 1 box of blood in the back of the car too, but you
have to be assessed in a car separately before becoming rota active in that vehicle.

I used to donate blood as a way of paying something back to society. Now that my blood is too
manky, then I put something back by delivering other people’s.
Its voluntary , it puts miles on the bike, you have to pay for your own petrol, but the hospitals
welcome your input and I get to ride out at times and conditions where I would possibly not
unless I was meeting the SERV commitment.
I have tried to give you a frank and unabridged version of what life is like a SERV volunteer.

I intend to keep on doing it as long as HERTS and BEDS group will have me, and please feel
free to ask me any questions or for further details should you wish. Just look for the BMW with the SERV sticker on the windscreen.

[Sir Trev]

My wife and I used to ride for SERV - gave up every other Saturday night for over two years, sitting in an airless room behind a sports centre in New Maldon. As we did weekends the call outs were thin and we'd often get no calls at all. Mainly moving samples from the outlying hospitals to the central path lab.

This was twenty years ago and the policy of blue lights at the time was not at all. A bike would be decked out for promotional stand work but I believe the lights were removed before it was riden on the road. We were always told the blood service in the area was M-F day time only but I never thought to check, and it may well be different now as mentioned above or may have varied by region at the time.

The odd runs for whole blood from Tooting broke up the monotony. The look of relief once as a nurse whipped the box out of my hand and scurried off through the packed A&E one bonfire night was quite memorable and was a good feeling.

[Messie]

Originally Posted by ChrisCurvyS

I work for the NBS (now NHS Blood and Transplant) and I can tell you with absolute certainty that we do run a 24/7 delivery service with cars and vans (no bikes) - it doesn't have to be an emergency for us to deliver out-of-hours either.

The difference is, we make a small charge to cover our costs for the out-of-hours deliveries whereas the blood bikes don't as they're funded by members/donations, so that's why cash-strapped hospitals are increasingly using them.

It's a bit of a touchy one politically - obviously the SERV riders want to do a good thing and put in a lot of commitment, but it does make our drivers fear for their jobs and I think the unions see it as a potential slippery slope to volunteers replacing other NHS professions.

I can appreciate both sides myself and I did start signing up for NW Blood Bikes before I joined NHSBT and realised there's more to the issue than I first realised. It's a depressing thought but I suppose it's a good idea to make sure your job isn't fun/rewarding/exciting enough that people will do it for free.

That's sort of what I had heard, but wasn't sure it was a current thought. I know that it did become a bit of an issue in Essex, so maybe that's why the site's down.
Personally I can see both points of view on this, although I am firmly against non professionals using blue lights and sirens.

Strictly no lights and sirens for us and the bikes are tracked so if you speed to much or break the law your kicked out.

i had a word with members of SERV about doing blood runs,and with a smile on my face i asked if it would be legal to brake the speed limit and charge up the A14 at a 150mph on a call out,no we have to obey the speed limits like every one else was the reply,dammit i thought it might have been away to get round the legal speed limits,but back to reality,they do a damm good job and also subsidize the nhs

So, i've now completed my training, did what they call the north run and south run, completed the north run on weekday evening took 3.5 hrs getting home at 22:30 and took in John Radcliffe, Milton Keynes, Northampton and Kettering, the south run was held on a sunday and took around 7 hrs, taking in John Radcliffe, Stock Manville, Amersham, Hammersmith, Heatherwood, Wexham, Marlow, Harefield, Moorefields there's probably more, then I had manual handling and GMP training passed 100% and my check ride was on Sunday with a ROSPA instructor/examiner and passed, he also said if I was with ROSPA I would have passed with a Gold pass

So now I need to get a Pan to take out for the day and get on the December rota, I'll report back then.

[Sir Trev]

Originally Posted by SUPERSTARDJ01

...and my check ride was on Sunday with a ROSPA instructor/examiner and passed, he also said if I was with ROSPA I would have passed with a Gold pass

Well done! A mate has done the RoSPA Gold and said it was really tough to get up to and maintain the standard.

Next time you go to Stoke Mandeville ask them to give us back our A&E - a town the size of High Wycombe without one is nuts [/off_political_soapbox]

completely agree