The BloodFast Emergency Voluntary Service
The BloodFast Emergency Voluntary Service provides an urgent/emergency out-of-hours transportation service to hospitals in the East Riding of Yorkshire Area.
BloodFast is a group of volunteers who are willing to give up their free time to transport crucial medical items to and from our local hospitals. We are a charitable organisation associated with the Freewheelers network and are currently awaiting our registered charity number. We have a coverage area that includes Hull, Beverley, Bridlington, Scarborough, Goole and surrounding areas. There are a number of Freewheeler groups that exist covering different parts of the country and this enables us to transport items to these counties by coordinating with these other Freewheeler groups.
Free lifesaving service to the NHS
The lifesaving service to the NHS is provided free of charge and is funded entirely by public donations and sponsorship.
We are often referred to as blood bikes or blood cars although we are not a part of the Blood Transfusion Service. We can be called to transport patient notes, test samples, X-rays, drugs, small pieces of medical equipment and other medical supplies. In 2006 one of the other existing Freewheeler EVS groups made more than 1800 deliveries - a 50% increase on 2005. We are willing to help our local hospitals to save money and use those funds for something more important such as beds, machines and other equipment and only make a small mileage charge of 50 pence per loaded mile when asked to undertake longer/out of area runs in excess of 20 miles. If we can gain sufficient sponsorship to cover our fuel costs, we will reduce or remove this mileage charge in the future.
BloodFast operate a fleet of specially adapted motorcycles and cars equipped with blue lights and sirens for emergency use. These enable us to save lives by delivering urgently required items. If our service did not exist hospitals would be forced to use a costly and potentially slow taxi or courier.
