Our Volunteers

Our volunteers are men and women from all walks of life. While some are retired many are employed elsewhere and provide this service in their spare time. All volunteers are Garda vetted, carry photo-ID, and have completed a rigorous training programme. No volunteer is paid for their service.

Our Service

Blood Bikes South East engage in a range of out-of-hours medical transport activities including;

 

• For Hospitals – transport of blood products, medical samples, medical records, scans, x-rays, test results, urgent medicines and medical devices, to hospitals, hospital laboratories, and specialist laboratories, regionally and nationwide.

 

• For Nursing homes – delivering urgent out-of-hours medical samples, urgent medicines and records to and from local hospitals and community pharmacies.

 

• For Mothers and Babies – cooperating with other blood bike groups nationally to transport donated ‘raw’ human breast milk from donors in the South East into the Human Breast Milk Bank in Enniskillen and transporting processed human breast milk to families and neonatal units across the region.

 

• For Families – support where a child is being treated for Leukaemia. This involves collecting a blood sample on a regular schedule from the family’s house and transporting it to the laboratory in Crumlin Children’s Hospital on their behalf.

Bikes and Cars

Usually motorcycles are used as these are the most effective way of getting through traffic, but in adverse weather, such as during the snowstorms, or for larger shipments (e.g. human breast milk), we switch back to four wheels. All vehicles are fully insured and fitted with state-of-the-art trackers – so our controllers know exactly where they are in real time. All volunteers are trained to deliver the highest levels of service.

Working with Hospitals

Blood Bikes South East operates under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with our client hospitals. Our ‘track and trace’ documentation system means there is verifiable evidence at every critical point from dispatch to delivery. We maintain detailed electronic records and archive hard copy receipts for five years.

The service we provide is completely FREE of charge to the hospitals, nursing homes, laboratories, patients and families that benefit from it.