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A DEDICATED GROUP of bikers have joined forces to smash stereotypes and help out hospital patients.
The volunteer charitable organisation of 17 ‘Blood Bikers’ was started by Mike Carty, who was inspired after watching a TV programme about blood bikers in the UK. These emergency riders bring items to hospitals, without charging for their services.
The voluntary service was officially launched in Galway six weeks ago and has the backing of Bluebird Care, which bought the two bikes that are used by the group, and Carole Nash, which helped to create a bespoke insurance policy for them.
They transport urgently needed blood, blood products, patient records, drugs and other medical requirements between hospitals and blood transfusion banks, primarily but not exclusively in the Western Region.
Currently, their services are offered to any HSE or private hospital or clinic in the Western Region, on an out-of-hours basis from 7pm to 7am Monday to Thursday and from 7pm on Fridays to 7am on Mondays, with a complete 24 hour service over the weekend and on Bank Holidays.
Carty said in some cases a taxi can cost the HSE between €300 – 400 for a trip to send a CD or test tube of blood to a hospital.
By providing this service we are allowing a massive saving to hospitals in terms of couriers fees, taxi fares and tying up ambulances.
Volunteers
The volunteers receive advanced training through RoSPA and undergo regular reviews of their skills. The emergency response vehicles are fully kitted out and specially adapted to carry the products, while all personnel are Garda vetted and carry official identity cards whilst on duty.
Carty told TheJournal.ie that they were helped in setting up the group by blood bikers in England. “Most people who ride motorbikes just want an excuse to ride motorbikes,” he said – so why not “combine that with doing a bit of good”?
“The hospital in Galway has a regular pick up going to Dublin every day at 3pm,” said Carty.
If someone presents after 3pm and they have urgent blood samples, they won’t get picked up again until the next day, and that can be a 24 hour delay in diagnosis. We can go in there at 7pm in the evening and have the bloods at 9pm. We’ll often have them there before the 3pm pick-up gets there.
He said that at first the hospitals were a bit sceptical – “why are those people doing it for free?” – but now are delighted to use their service. The group has enough funding to keep them going for three months, and will hold a fundraising event once a month. They hope to bump up the number of volunteers to between 20 and 30 riders.
Carty said that they are “very select with who we let on”, and that the very tight internal controls ensure that riders have to be trained to silver or gold level, and are tested by a police motorbike trainer. They also have to be over 30 and have a full clean licence for more than two years.
The bikes have a blue light they can use, but they have to comply with the Road Traffic Act. They have been averaging one call a week since the launch and with plans to start blood biker groups in Dublin, Cork, Donegal, and Limerick, an Irish Association of Blood Bikers has been set up.
They deal with Roscommon, Ballinasloe and two hospitals in Galway, and will begin to deal with Castlebar in early 2013. Find out more on their official website.
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Bit of a silly idea really, shipping will be a thing of the past soon with 3 D printers, I bought one recently, would anyone like me to print them another one?
Yeah I’ll have one. Cheers
‘Opposing it is unpatriotic’?
Haven’t we had governments that have used that phrase before?
Seems like a mad idea / publicity stunt
The Chinese bubble is about to burst, that should put an end to this idea.
Nah its not. They own most of America’s debt and also have massive export market. They can go to the wall several times before failing.
Jason, where is Chinas largest export market? The USA, you might want to do a rethink with your comment.
Declan, look at anything you buy and think where was it made. Hell, look at the clothes you’re wearing, providing you’re clothed, they were most certainly made in china. Sure the label might say another country but that country only put a button or such on the garment to be able to say that. The label was printed and sewn on in china even lol
Dont need to Declan. Emerging economies and existing ones worldwide will easily fill the gap the Americans ‘may’ create.
May want to rethink yours tbh.
Sound familiar? ” State-run enterprises controlled most of the money flow, pouring borrowed cash into housing construction and other speculative investments. In 2011, spending on plant, machinery, buildings, and infrastructure made up an amazing forty-eight percent of China’s GDP.”
How long can China continue to keep the lid on wages? The extraordinary rate of growth in the Chinese economy has concealed the smoke and mirrors aspect of their economy and the massive uncontrolled lending and borrowing which powered the growth. The USA looks likely to devalue the dollar soon and that will surely knock a hole in the value of the American bonds held by China { They don’t hold most of the bonds BTW, Saudi and Russian holdings exceed the Chinese ] Looks like fun on the way, not new canals.
Jobs for the buoys…
Why not ? Build it they will come, competition is good right?
Maurice, economically unfeasible, did you not read the article?
Bondholders!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They are building it with the billions that was extorted from the Irish tax payer. It is refreshing to see our hard earned money being put to good use Mr. Kenny and Mr. Gilmore!
Normal
Is that one of the most ill-researched and poorly conceived comments of all time on the journal? I think so.
Is there any mention of European investment in this article?
Do you seriously think the Chinese are so in need of cash that they’re in some way reliant on the piddling debt of Ireland?
I’d pity the Chinese if they were relying on us to pay off our debt as they’d be waiting a long time for all the people grumbling about burning bondholders to pay their mortgages.
These two things are wholly unrelated but if the Chinese had leant our banks money I’d say they were entitled to it back. It wouldn’t be their fault that every tool in the country thought building houses was the easy alternative to an education and hard work and borrowed beyond their means.
Are you serious?
@Gerard my comment was primarily put out in jest. Neither you are I can state who are the Bondholders that are receiving billions of our taxes.
Given that, the first port of call after the property bubble burst, where representation was made on behalf of the Irish government to increase trade (we were told) was China and they in turn paid a visit to Ireland? Gerard it is a pity we didn’t have experts like you to warn us of the property collapse all you academics kept that information to yourselves. I bet if you had been told in 2007 that Europe’s Economy and the USA were going to collapse you would have stated, ” I’ll researched and poorly conceived comments.” If we didn’t have wannabe Economists like you, we would all be in a better place now!
Name the bondholders Gerard before you criticise, then you can uphold your criticism? Because even if I am wrong you can not prove that, thus remain the unmasked bondholders!
Gerard ” every tool in the country” were advised by the FF cartel to invest in the property ladder and don’ t get left behind. Why are you angry at the people and why did you state that if China ( and you do not know) was one of the unmasked bondholders, that they would deserve their money back? We all didn’t party, most invested for retirement and in their future and their families future and lost everything. The bondholders invested out of greed and lost, but our CRIMINALS in government FF-FG-L are paying them back out of our taxes and when our taxes were not enough they taxed us more and our homes!
“Advised?” Could you not have used common sense?
Sounds like an excellent idea would create a huge boost for Nicaragua after all the wars and suffering it has endured
There are two main reasons this is a bad idea:
1) the massive Panama Canal expansion project that is nearing completion, massively increasing the size of ships that can transit the canal (and thus massively increasing the annual freight-tonne throughput of the canal, again using optimistic forecasts); and
2) the fact that shipments from china to both the east coast of the USA and Europe will be a lot shorter for most of the year if global warming continues and the north west passage becomes more navigable (at least in summer time).
Given that shipment times on this canal will be longer than Panama, the fact it is slightly further north won’t help that much in terms of time saving. They’d need to charge lower fees than Panama to make it worthwhile and with the infrastructure in place, Panama could cut prices in the morning without massive difficulty (albeit it would cause some given the cost of the lock expansion project) as the only competitor they’ve had to date is Cape Horn. Basically, it seems like at best an ill-advised plan and at worst a mad one.
I’m also not sure $40bn is enough or close to it.
Im packing the bags when id it starting
Why does the heading say 30 billion but then the article itself says an estimated 40 billion? Bit of major difference.
Two different currencies.
€ $
Dollars and euros.
have your say