Before bloodbikes how was blood delivered?

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.

Fergus.

Cienciano wrote: »

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

There are plenty of them about.