About
Outside normal office hours, the NHS relies on taxis or couriers to transfer urgent medical supplies, test samples and emergency medical equipment between hospitals and other healthcare sites. This, of course, incurs significant costs to the NHS.
Highland & Islands Blood Bikes (HAIBB) provide an out of hours service at no cost to the NHS, ensuring the limited resources of the NHS can be used where it makes a difference.
As well as saving money, they help free up hospital beds by providing a delivery service for some patient supplies, allowing patients to go home earlier in the day.
Grant
Recently, The Hospital Saturday Fund awarded a grant to help support increased running costs during the Covid 19 pandemic.
Thank you
We were delighted to receive the following email in appreciation of this grant:
Highland and Islands Blood Bikes are a relatively new Charity whose purpose is to transport bloods and vital medical supplies free of charge to the NHS. We began our operations in March this year and immediately found ourselves in the deep end with the onset of the pandemic. Since then we have been operational seven days a week, 6AM to 8PM, and have grown to 5 motorcycles and 1 car covering the whole of the NHS Highland area with bases in Inverness, Fort William, Oban and Wick. We have found ourselves transporting COVID-19 samples throughout the area but also we have had journeys to Aberdeen, Elgin, Dundee, Glasgow and Edinburgh. It has been a very busy time and a big learning curve! And we are all thoroughly overwhelmed by the support shown and the amount of local volunteering that has gone on. Your grant will greatly help us in keeping our bikes in good, safe condition with fuel in the tank. Thank you once again for your support.
Mark McGinty, Publicity Officer
To find out more about this charity, you can follow them on Facebook where you will find videos and pictures from some of their runs or visit their website at haibloodbikes.co.uk.
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