Midland Freewheelers

midland-freewheelers-logo
Midland Freewheelers
Midland Freewheelers
Midland Freewheelers
Midland Freewheelers
HELPING THE NHS
HELP YOU

Providing an emergency rider service to NHS hospitals throughout the country

Midland Freewheelers
7 DAYS A WEEK
365 DAYS A YEAR

Providing a free emergency out of hours
blood and medical essentials delivery service to the NHS

Midland Freewheelers
100% VOLUTARY
100% COMMITTED

We are always looking for volunteers to help with the sevice

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How it all began

Midland Freewheelers was first formed as a result of the original Chairman, Ray Hart, attending a Birmingham Advanced Motorcyclists meeting in 2009, where a chap from Severn Freewheelers Bloodbikes gave a talk about their work. Ray thought ‘That’s a good idea, why haven’t we got a Bloodbike Group in Birmingham?’

Midland Freewheelers founding members - Ray Hart, Dave Walker and John Gaunt
Our founding members – Ray Hart, Dave Walker and John Gaunt

Ray and the other two founder members of MF, John Gaunt and Dave Walker got together and, with help and advice from other existing groups, began to pull together the essential elements such as a constitution, a bank account (with not much money in it at that point!) and most importantly, an agreement with New Cross Hospital, Wolverhampton, to provide a free motorcycle-based out of hours courier service for essential medical items. They started with just one bike, which was an ex-Police 1300 Honda Pan European with lots of miles on the clock, but safe and serviceable.

Operations began on the 1st July 2010 and the New Cross work continues to this day.


Where we are now

From that foundation our service has grown year on year and we now provide our service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, in any weather!

We cover the whole of the West Midlands, serving a large number of hospitals, medical facilities and nursing homes including Cannock Hospital, Walsall Manor Hospital, Good Hope Hospital, City Hospital, Heartlands Hospital, QE Hospital, Birmingham Women’s Hospital, Birmingham Children’s Hospital, Russell’s Hall Hospital, West Park Hospital and New Cross Hospital to name a few.

We also keep the Midlands Air Ambulance charity’s helicopter, based at RAF Cosford, supplied with blood so they can give life-saving blood transfusions at an incident.

We are a charity staffed entirely by volunteers who give up their time to ride bikes, drive cars, coordinate and fundraise.

We carry anything of a medical nature (size permitting) including blood, human tissue, samples, X rays and patient notes. We consider all deliveries to be HIGH PRIORITY and deliver them as soon as a bike becomes free.

Midland Freewheelers are part of a larger blood bike family, the Nationwide Association of Blood Bikes (NABB). NABB, along with other blood bike groups across the country, work together to provide the transportation where needed. It essentially means as a group we can transport items across the whole of the UK.  More recently they were key in setting up the relationship between blood bikers and Sky Watch UK for ‘air relays’ using helicopters and planes to assist our supply chain of transporting urgent medial consignments.

NABB’s main role is to liaise with government on legislation, promote the work of blood bikes and assist in the setup of new groups alongside providing help and guidance to existing groups across the UK and Ireland.

Nationwide Association of Blood Bikes Logo

We are always looking for volunteers to help with the service. If you can spare a little of your time then we would be pleased to welcome you to the group.

We carry anything of a medical nature that can safely be carried by our small fleet of motorbikes and the two cars. Here are some examples:

Blood

We transport a range of blood products including whole blood, blood products, plasma and platelets.

Breast Milk

We collect donated breast milk from mothers and take it to the Milk Bank at Birmingham Women’s Hospital. From there we deliver to sick babies in hospitals across the region as well as setting up relays with other blood bike groups such as delivering to Hospitals in South Wales.

FMT

FMT or Fecal Microbiota Transplants are incredibly important to patients across the region and the wider UK. We collect transplants from the University of Birmingham and deliver via relays with other blood bike groups to get to the end patient. Google FMT, you’ll be amazed how it works and the life changing effect it has!

Pathology Samples

These are the bread and butter of our work. We transport samples from medical facilities to biochemistry laboratories across the region, some routine, some more critical.

Chemotherapy Drugs

This involves some of the more time critical work we undertake for the Birmingham Children's Hospital. Most of the drugs we transport have a very short shelf life so have to be delivered in a timely fashion to ensure patient success.

Medical Equipment

Along with other medical equipment, we are often requested by the neonatal unit at the QE to deliver and collect Oxymeters or Pulseox machines which are pieces of equipment used for monitoring new-borns that have recently left hospital, allowing them to go home earlier.

Medication

We deliver medication from central pharmacies to patients in other hospitals and nursing homes.

Patient Notes

A number of these jobs are focused around the renal units across the region, transferring notes to and from hospital wards and specialist units.

Behind the scenes access to our service.