Before bloodbikes how was blood delivered?

Skill Magill

Was it by ambulance, or was the blood given to couriers and taxi drivers to deliver?

GBX

Skill Magill wrote: »

Was it by ambulance, or was the blood given to couriers and taxi drivers to deliver?

Taxis mainly. The hse has been spending hundreds of thousands over years in taxi costs. The blood bikes being voluntary is aimed at reducing the cost to the hse.

Skill Magill

I'd imagine the taxi drivers are delighted

GBX

Skill Magill wrote: »

I'd imagine the taxi drivers are delighted

Yeah don't you know it! They are entitled to earn a wage but not draining the already suffering hse.

Skill Magill

I hear ye, its grand being altruistic , but to some people it may look like its guys with jobs taking a blood bike out for a spin on their time off, albeit with the best of intentions.

Sunnyisland

I used to work in the blood bank back in the 70,s, when it was at the top of lesson street near the bridge,Back then they had a fleet of refrigerated vans,well 5/6 ,kinda ambulance type with sirens etc,they also had two big blood trucks which would go around the country to collect.for Dublin they used taxis.

Good times working there :-)

Skill Magill

How do you become one? Whats the criteria?

galwaytt

Skill Magill wrote: »

How do you become one? Whats the criteria?

Is easy - where are you based and I'll get you a number. (I ride for Bloodbike West). PM it to me.

RoSPA is the usual standard to attain.

We've saved HSE a minimum of €18k this year.

arybvtcw0eolkf

GBX wrote: »

Yeah don't you know it! They are entitled to earn a wage but not draining the already suffering hse.

Well in fairness it was the taxi companies who had the contracts and the drivers got the work from the base, and you didn't get the metered fare either (I worked for a Dublin taxi company with the James Hospital contract) ~ often the fare was cut by 25% (from the receipt).

galwaytt

Skill Magill wrote: »

I hear ye, its grand being altruistic , but to some people it may look like its guys with jobs taking a blood bike out for a spin on their time off, albeit with the best of intentions.

I've never met anyone with a negative view of what we do. Spending €300 on a taxi fare is just not on imho. And we have definitely saved lives on more than one occasion - even having hospitals ring us back saying so, to thank us.

galwaytt

Skill Magill wrote: »

Was it by ambulance, or was the blood given to couriers and taxi drivers to deliver?

I remember the health board running their own CD200 Benly in Galway in the 80's.

GBX

Kamryn Fluffy Milkman wrote: »

Well in fairness it was the taxi companies who had the contracts and the drivers got the work from the base, and you didn't get the metered fare either (I worked for a Dublin taxi company with the James Hospital contract) ~ often the fare was cut by 25% (from the receipt).

That's fair enough reduced costs by the taxi company but still at 75% of the cost of the journey where it could be over and back to Galway that's still a big chunk of funds. The blood bikes are doing a great job bringing costs down.
@skill the view that some lads are just out on a spin wouldn't be the same by many would it? The blood bikes east, west, north east are promoting well on out fundraising on the streets on Facebook Twitter etc to educate those who are not sure what exactly the service is they do.

Skill Magill

How does it work so? I presume you'd be sitting at home and get a call, jump on your own bike and leg it to the hospital where the blood bike is, hop on that and deliver it to the next hospital?

arybvtcw0eolkf

GBX wrote: »

That's fair enough reduced costs by the taxi company but still at 75% of the cost of the journey where it could be over and back to Galway that's still a big chunk of funds. The blood bikes are doing a great job bringing costs down.

Oh I wasn't trying to take away the good the blood bikes are doing, I was just setting out how it was for taxi drivers.

Personally I'd favor the bikes over the taxi's too ~ we used to have taxi's who'd rank up on the system in James Hospital and wait all day for the lucrative country runs.

Not a blood run, but a good story all the same.. We'd another guy in the company who lived at the back of Beaumont Hospital, he'd leave his taxi in his garden with a baby monitor listening for his data head (radio) to call him for a job, in which case he'd 15sec's to go and key his mike to accept the job or the system gave it to someone else ~ if it wasn't a country job (kidney dialysis unit contract) he'd throw it back and go back inside his house until a good job came up.

Its **** like this who'll bleed anything and any one dry to make live cushy for themselves.

GBX

Skill Magill wrote: »

How does it work so? I presume you'd be sitting at home and get a call, jump on your own bike and leg it to the hospital where the blood bike is, hop on that and deliver it to the next hospital?

Think they have the blood bike collected ready for a call. Go collect the blood products and deliver it to hospital and wait on the next call. Blood bikes east have a few bikes on the road at any one time around Dublin and meeting other blood bikes for country runs they are that busy especially at the weekend.

GBX

Kamryn Fluffy Milkman wrote: »

Oh I wasn't trying to take away the good the blood bikes are doing, I was just setting out how it was for taxi drivers.

Personally I'd favor the bikes over the taxi's too ~ we used to have taxi's who'd rank up on the system in James Hospital and wait all day for the lucrative country runs.

Not a blood run, but a good story all the same.. We'd another guy in the company who lived at the back of Beaumont Hospital, he'd leave his taxi in his garden with a baby monitor listening for his data head (radio) to call him for a job, in which case he'd 15sec's to go and key his mike to accept the job or the system gave it to someone else ~ if it wasn't a country job (kidney dialysis unit contract) he'd throw it back and go back inside his house until a good job came up.

Its **** like this who'll bleed anything and any one dry to make live cushy for themselves.

Ah I know man. That's some carry on jaysus

goodlad

Not all the branches require RoSPA. Tbh that's a retarded standard to require.
I spoke to the east and they just need a grand 2. Leinster state RoSPA but told me they look at each applicant on their own merits. I really don't think there is a set in stone need for RoSPA. I post my application into the Leinster group but never heard anything back.

Cocoon

Kamryn Fluffy Milkman wrote: »

Oh I wasn't trying to take away the good the blood bikes are doing, I was just setting out how it was for taxi drivers.

Personally I'd favor the bikes over the taxi's too ~ we used to have taxi's who'd rank up on the system in James Hospital and wait all day for the lucrative country runs.

Not a blood run, but a good story all the same.. We'd another guy in the company who lived at the back of Beaumont Hospital, he'd leave his taxi in his garden with a baby monitor listening for his data head (radio) to call him for a job, in which case he'd 15sec's to go and key his mike to accept the job or the system gave it to someone else ~ if it wasn't a country job (kidney dialysis unit contract) he'd throw it back and go back inside his house until a good job came up.

Its **** like this who'll bleed anything and any one dry to make live cushy for themselves.

I worked for the same company back then too, I said it to the boss about drivers like the one mentioned but he would never listen

Good auld days though, not like that anymore though.

Stella Virgo

galwaytt wrote: »

I remember the health board running their own CD200 Benly in Galway in the 80's.

in galway they used a honda 90 in the seventys,a honda cb 200.and a yamaha 250 in the 80s .all fitted with a top box for the blood box .in the 90s the used a white nissan micra van,plus any ambulance that happened to be driving by the hospitals,laboratory porters that had bike/car licenses usually got that job.blood came from dublin in the blood bank own vehicles.

worded

Were deauvilles used at all ?

gctest50

Skill Magill wrote: »

I'd imagine the taxi drivers are delighted

i doubt they'd miss it - the taxi bill is about 25 million

still - better than they trying to maintain their own fleet - if a taxi slams into a wall on a run you can just phone another one


the swiftness of the bikes through traffic will save so many lives

Cocoon

gctest50 wrote: »

i doubt they'd miss it - the taxi bill is about 25 million

still - better than they trying to maintain their own fleet - if a taxi slams into a wall on a run you can just phone another one


the swiftness of the bikes through traffic will save so many lives

Taxi's stopped doing blood runs to the country around 2006-2007, a courier company using vans took it over after that. Fair play to the blood bikes for doing the runs, especially Letterkenny as its a grooling ride.. If I had time to spare being a biker myself I'd lend a hand. Best of luck and fair play to the bikers for their time saving lifes....

arybvtcw0eolkf

Cocoon wrote: »

I worked for the same company back then too, I said it to the boss about drivers like the one mentioned but he would never listen

Good auld days though, not like that anymore though.

Because they lost the contract to NRC

Anyway this ain't a taxi discussion so I'll knock that on the head, but I don't miss that job one bit, particularly that company who tried to bleed both the hospitals and the drivers dry.

Wonda-Boy

Skill Magill wrote: »

How does it work so? I presume you'd be sitting at home and get a call, jump on your own bike and leg it to the hospital where the blood bike is, hop on that and deliver it to the next hospital?

AFAIK you assign how many nights/days you want to do a month....minimum is two a month. You stay at a hotel in the area you are assigned and are on call with the bike in the car park. I think the bike is actually stationed at the hotels all the time.....then you are on call for the day or night. You could have one run you could have 50 depending on whats going on.

I looked into doing this right at the start, and lets just say some of the people involved in this are not doing it purely for the HSE they are trying to line there own pockets only in certain regions. I know this for a fact!

Its an absolutely stellar cause and I hope it gets the support it deserves all over Ireland. And anyone doing it deserves great credit.

galwaytt

Wonda-Boy wrote: »

AFAIK you assign how many nights/days you want to do a month....minimum is two a month. You stay at a hotel in the area you are assigned and are on call with the bike in the car park. I think the bike is actually stationed at the hotels all the time.....then you are on call for the day or night. You could have one run you could have 50 depending on whats going on.

I looked into doing this right at the start, and lets just say some of the people involved in this are not doing it purely for the HSE they are trying to line there own pockets only in certain regions. I know this for a fact!

Its an absolutely stellar cause and I hope it gets the support it deserves all over Ireland. And anyone doing it deserves great credit.

That's nothing like BBW system . You're on call and have the blood bike at home and await the call to go. There are no hotels or anything involved. When your rota is over you pass the bike to the next guy and so on and so on. Remember there is no guarantee that the phone will ring, so it needs to work in to people's lives.
You'll more be more comfortable rested and make your riding safer.

As for RoSPA, it's not mandated by everyone, but it does ensure a certain competency. I've had people with years of riding experience offer to ride only to discover they don't have full licences, or don't believe in insurance, and think riding a Blood Bike is a permit to hoon. It's not. It's certainly enjoyable. But the core function is not riding, it's helping the "client". At the very least approach your local BB and ask. Maybe an assessment is all it will take to confirm your abilities.

I did RoSPA before I joined BBW, and it is not retarded. It's training that I feel makes me a better, safer, rider. No point in helping a hospital and then getting killed on the way home. ..

As for financial there are no payments to riders and we spend a huge amount of time fundraising just to cover expenses. Every cent is used in the service, nothing more. Motorcycles and motorcycling ain't cheap - but you know that already.

goodlad

galwaytt wrote: »

That's nothing like BBW system . You're on call and have the blood bike at home and await the call to go. There are no hotels or anything involved.

Maybe its not the system in place for the section of blood bikes you drive for.
But it is certainly the setup for East.

I have detailed messages from very recently when i was looking into it and asking how it all worked. The information i got back straight from bb east is exactly as wonda has mentioned.

galwaytt

goodlad wrote: »

Maybe its not the system in place for the section of blood bikes you drive for.
But it is certainly the setup for East.

I have detailed messages from very recently when i was looking into it and asking how it all worked. The information i got back straight from bb east is exactly as wonda has mentioned.

That's fine if they have the resources and the demand locally to require it. I mean I'm sure London would have a different arrangement too - all down to what's needed and what's affordable.

We haven't got that. Yet at any rate.

serious3

cough cough, if anyone wants to donate to blood bike west click on the link on here
https://www.facebook.com/compassforbbw

they are a group close to my heart after all one of the bikes is named after my daughter!

Pataman

goodlad wrote: »

Maybe its not the system in place for the section of blood bikes you drive for.
But it is certainly the setup for East.

I have detailed messages from very recently when i was looking into it and asking how it all worked. The information i got back straight from bb east is exactly as wonda has mentioned.

Not entirely true. BBE have nearly 90 riders. Only 1 avails of a hotel room purely because he lives on the outskirts of Dublin and would take him too long to respond. All other riders collect the bike, then sit at home waiting for the call

Pataman

Wonda-Boy wrote: »

AFAIK you assign how many nights/days you want to do a month....minimum is two a month. You stay at a hotel in the area you are assigned and are on call with the bike in the car park. I think the bike is actually stationed at the hotels all the time.....then you are on call for the day or night. You could have one run you could have 50 depending on whats going on.

I looked into doing this right at the start, and lets just say some of the people involved in this are not doing it purely for the HSE they are trying to line there own pockets only in certain regions. I know this for a fact!

Its an absolutely stellar cause and I hope it gets the support it deserves all over Ireland. And anyone doing it deserves great credit.

I would be very surprised at this considering the work that goes in to the setting up and running of these organisations.
Nobody in any of the blood bike groups that I know gets 1 cent. In fact it costs every rider as that pay their own fuel costs( to get to the lockup) and phone calls, etc

Pataman

goodlad wrote:

Not all the branches require RoSPA. Tbh that's a retarded standard to require. I spoke to the east and they just need a grand 2. Leinster state RoSPA but told me they look at each applicant on their own merits. I really don't think there is a set in stone need for RoSPA. I post my application into the Leinster group but never heard anything back.

BBE require an AON2 to start with. This is to allow riders get a start without the expense of Rospa at the start. 6 months from their first shift we require a rospa silver/ gold.
rospa is an independent assessment of riding skill and is a safest system of motorcycle control.

Wonda-Boy

Pataman wrote: »

BBE require an AON2 to start with. This is to allow riders get a start without the expense of Rospa at the start. 6 months from their first shift we require a rospa silver/ gold.
rospa is an independent assessment of riding skill and is a safest system of motorcycle control.

Do you have to do the Rospa with anyone in particular or can you choose the tester? Dont see why there should be an expense to anyone especially the volunteer.....in 6mths you would clearly see if someone can ride a bike or not.

ratracer

Wonda-Boy wrote: »

Do you have to do the Rospa with anyone in particular or can you choose the tester? Dont see why there should be an expense to anyone especially the volunteer.....in 6mths you would clearly see if someone can ride a bike or not.

The RoSPA exam costs something like €55 to do, them you have to maintain membership of RoSPA which is £23 per year, this also included re-certification which is every 3 years. My insurance had dropped by a third for the last two years simce I done my RoSPA, to me that's reason enough to keep it updated.

So getting RoSPA qualified is hardly a big expense.

Wonda-Boy

Its a very worth while cause, but not all regions are being run the same.

MrPudding

Kamryn Fluffy Milkman wrote: »

Well in fairness it was the taxi companies who had the contracts and the drivers got the work from the base, and you didn't get the metered fare either (I worked for a Dublin taxi company with the James Hospital contract) ~ often the fare was cut by 25% (from the receipt).

I am involved with one of the UK groups and my understanding is that over here there was no discount. We had been told that the hospitals were typically charged for both legs of the journey, it was very expensive.

To address the OP, from a UK perspective which I guess is similar to the Irish situation, before the blood bikes blood was transported by the blood transfusion service, typically during the day. There were scheduled deliveries based on what the hospital reckoned they would need. Outside of this, if there was an emergency or an unexpected run on a particular product, BTS would make the delivery where possible. If this was not possible, they had no drivers available (only a skeleton staff worked overnight, weekends and bank holidays) then the job would go to a courier or taxi.

I suppose the blood bikes have taken away some business from taxis and couriers, and that is not great, but being pragmatic about the whole thing, I would prefer that money to be available for the health service than being given to a courier company. My blood bike group has saved the NHS 10s of thousands of pounds over the years it has been operating. This can't be a bad thing.

Also, pushing on for 20% of our work is now collecting and delivering donor breast milk. This is not a pervy as it may seem, the milk is bottled and frozen when we collect it, but this is an extremely worthwhile extension of our service, one that really helps.

MrP

Alkers

Wonda-Boy wrote: »

AFAIK you assign how many nights/days you want to do a month....minimum is two a month. You stay at a hotel in the area you are assigned and are on call with the bike in the car park. I think the bike is actually stationed at the hotels all the time.....then you are on call for the day or night. You could have one run you could have 50 depending on whats going on.

I looked into doing this right at the start, and lets just say some of the people involved in this are not doing it purely for the HSE they are trying to line there own pockets only in certain regions. I know this for a fact!

Its an absolutely stellar cause and I hope it gets the support it deserves all over Ireland. And anyone doing it deserves great credit.

Can you elaborate on this?

MrPudding

Wonda-Boy wrote: »

Dont see why there should be an expense to anyone especially the volunteer.....in 6mths you would clearly see if someone can ride a bike or not.

There are number of reasons for this. First of all, the people running the organisation do bear some corporate responsibility for the conduct of the riders, even though everyone is doing it on a voluntary basis. Requiring an advanced qualification is a good way to filter out some rider that might not be appropriate for the service, 6 months might be too late. My group requires riders, or drivers, hold either a RoSPA, IAM or Police Class 1 qualification. Even then we will still run our own assessment. Everyone has their own opinion on advanced qualifications, but at the end of the day they do show, at the very least, the person is capable of taking constructive criticism about their riding, using that to change how they ride and then being able to sit a test which show, at least for the period of that test, that they were able to put this all into practice.

I don't like riding with groups of strangers in general. I am quite happy, however, to ride with a group of strangers from IAM. I am happy to do this because I know how they will ride, I know what they will do. They are a known quantity to me. I think it is something similar for the blood bike groups. Yes, anyone can ride recklessly, should they chose to, but when someone has an advanced qualification you know that they can, when they choose to, ride to a proscribed standard. Does it mean they aren't a hooligan? No. Does it mean they can be trusted to uphold the reputation of your organisation? Certainly not. But it is something.

Aside from the 'filtering' aspect of requiring an advanced qualification, there may also be insurance concerns. Again using the example of my group, it is a requirement of the company that insures our marked bikes that the riders hold an advance qualification.

We had a massive debate in our group about advanced qualifications. Initially one was not needed, but riders were expected to work towards it. We had and still have plenty of RoSPA and IAM observers, so were able to support our volunteers development. We later took the decision to have an advanced qualification as a requirement. This caused some trouble, and a number of riders left in protest, but I feel we are a stronger group for it.

MrP

P.C.

Wonda-Boy wrote: »

AFAIK you assign how many nights/days you want to do a month....minimum is two a month. You stay at a hotel in the area you are assigned and are on call with the bike in the car park. I think the bike is actually stationed at the hotels all the time.....then you are on call for the day or night. You could have one run you could have 50 depending on whats going on.

I looked into doing this right at the start, and lets just say some of the people involved in this are not doing it purely for the HSE they are trying to line there own pockets only in certain regions. I know this for a fact!

Its an absolutely stellar cause and I hope it gets the support it deserves all over Ireland. And anyone doing it deserves great credit.

Can you prove this fact?

Or should we just beleive you?

MrPudding

P.C. wrote: »

Can you prove this fact?

Or should we just beleive you?

Will be interesting to see. I know my involvement in the uk has done nothing but cost me money!

MrP

Wonda-Boy

MrPudding wrote: »

Will be interesting to see. I know my involvement in the uk has done nothing but cost me money!

MrP

I know what I know, and yes it was confirmed by myself and others that are still involved in BB and others that have tried and I am not saying anything more on the subject, especially on here. Its a fantastic cause and it deserves every success it gets. But as I said every region is run differently....and if people think that no one cashes in on things because they are for a good cause its laughable.

Cienciano

As good a job as the BBW and BBE lads are doing, aren't all threads on this charity banned?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=85485989

P.C. wrote: »

Evening all

All/any blood bike threads started here will be deleted.

boards.ie is not here to entertain arguments between current/past members of any blood bike group.

Thank you.

Skill Magill

C the thread was about how blood was delivered before bloodbikes

P.C.

Cienciano wrote: »

As good a job as the BBW and BBE lads are doing, aren't all threads on this charity banned?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=85485989

If you login, go to the main page of the motorbike forum and scroll down, near the bottom of the page on the right is a list of the Moderators of the forum. They are the ones who decide if a thread or topic is allowed or not.

The Blood Bikes do good work for no reward. It is a pity that Blood bike East and Blood bike Leinster had a falling out, although I am sure that is all in the past now.

P.C.

Wonda-Boy wrote: »

I know what I know, and yes it was confirmed by myself and others that are still involved in BB and others that have tried and I am not saying anything more on the subject, especially on here. Its a fantastic cause and it deserves every success it gets. But as I said every region is run differently....and if people think that no one cashes in on things because they are for a good cause its laughable.

So, you are saying that because you know what you know it is a fact.

If that is not what you are saying, please clarify.

The different Blood bike organizations do great work, and I for one am not concerned if they are run differently. After all they are independent from one another.

Faing

Let me just say this, if I ,or any member of my family or friends,find myself in need of blood I really don't give a flying f**k who or what delivers it. Anyone who provides any kind of a service like this deserves the support of us all.

Wonda-Boy

P.C. wrote: »

So, you are saying that because you know what you know it is a fact.

Yes I am saying that. If an incident occurs and happens to me then it is indeed FACT!!!

:rolleyes:

And as was pointed out by OPs this topic was indeed deemed to be off limits when it suited "Some People" at the time.

Anyway its clear that this topic is getting "TROLLED" and away from the main point of the original post.

P.C.

Wonda-Boy wrote: »

Yes I am saying that. If an incident occurs and happens to me then it is indeed FACT!!!

:rolleyes:

And as was pointed out by OPs this topic was indeed deemed to be off limits when it suited "Some People" at the time.

Anyway its clear that this topic is getting "TROLLED" and away from the main point of the original post.

I have to agree that you have derailed this thread.

As for your 'fact', it is nothing more than hearsay, rumours and gossip until you prove it.

MrPudding

Wonda-Boy wrote: »

Yes I am saying that. If an incident occurs and happens to me then it is indeed FACT!!!

:rolleyes:

And as was pointed out by OPs this topic was indeed deemed to be off limits when it suited "Some People" at the time.

Anyway its clear that this topic is getting "TROLLED" and away from the main point of the original post.

It is definitely getting trolled, not sure if you will agree with who is doing it though...

MrP

Penn

Wonda-Boy wrote: »

Yes I am saying that. If an incident occurs and happens to me then it is indeed FACT!!!

:rolleyes:

And as was pointed out by OPs this topic was indeed deemed to be off limits when it suited "Some People" at the time.

Anyway its clear that this topic is getting "TROLLED" and away from the main point of the original post.

P.C. wrote: »

I have to agree that you have derailed this thread.

As for your 'fact', it is nothing more than hearsay, rumours and gossip until you prove it.

Neither of you post on this thread again.

Fergus.

goodlad wrote: »

Not all the branches require RoSPA. Tbh that's a retarded standard to require.
I spoke to the east and they just need a grand 2. Leinster state RoSPA but told me they look at each applicant on their own merits. I really don't think there is a set in stone need for RoSPA. I post my application into the Leinster group but never heard anything back.

Hi goodlad Blood Bike Leinster reply to all applications received so if you would like to PM me your details and the address and when you sent your application in i will get someone to check it.

Thanks
Fergus

Cienciano

Saw a bloodbike for the first time on new years day just off Sundrive Road.