The phrase "baptism of fire" springs to mind. Within 30 minutes of starting my first week on duty as a telephone coordinator for the Freewheelers blood bikes, I had received eleven requests for assistance.
We have three active riders on duty from 7:00pm to 7:00am during the week and 24 hours at the weekend. Despite this through-the-night service we try to minimise the amount of work that we give our riders to ensure that they are fresh should a real emergency come through. Luckily tonight we didn't have any emergencies, which is just as well as our North rider, covering Bristol, had requests for eight deliveries. I decided to immediately to reject four of the jobs which were for the delivery of drugs solely within Weston-super-Mare.
So here is the list of what our riders actually did during the evening:
North Bike: An urgent delivery of X-Ray films from Bristol Oncology Centre to the specialist neurosurgery unit at Frenchay Hospital north of Bristol. A delivery of patient notes from Frenchay to Weston-super-Mare, followed by the exact reverse - delivering more patient notes from Weston back to Frenchay. A delivery of patient notes from Weston to Southmead Hospital in Bristol followed by a delivery of more notes from Southmead over to Frenchay, which the rider was given on arrival at Frenchay (meaning he had to go back to Southmead again). NHS money saved: £200. Time on the road: 3h25m
East Bike: A single urgent delivery of CT scans and notes from the RUH hospital in Bath to the Frenchay neurosurgery unit. NHS money saved: £30. Time on the road: 1h45m.
West Bike: Two deliveries of drugs from Weston-super-Mare to nursing homes in Congresbury and Burnham-on-Sea. NHS money saved: £40. Time on the road: 2h55m.
So the scores on the doors for tonight are £270 saved for the NHS and riders on the road for more than 8 hours. For my first night on duty as a coordinator I was quite wound up, so was really glad at 11:00pm when all our riders were safely home and I was able to give them a good nights sleep as no further calls came in.
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