How Highlands Blood Bikes transported ‘urgent medication’ 448 miles in four hours
How did a local volunteer-run charity manage to transport “urgent medication” 448 miles in just four hours?
Highlands and Island Blood Bikes (HAIBB), which is entirely run by volunteers and funded by public donations, provides a rapid response service 365 days a year. They move urgent medical samples, medication and equipment between hospitals, GP practices and the homes of patients.
Last week, the charity was tasked with one of its most ambitious challenges to date — transporting medication from Birmingham Medical School to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness.
Gordon Scott, the secretary of HAIBB, explained: “We partnered with the charity Civil Air Support (CAS) and the Shropshire and Cheshire Blood Bike group, to help move a patient’s medication which was produced and prepared at the Birmingham medical school.
“We were on the clock, and it couldn’t be done by just road or rail. The medication was then collected by the Shropshire blood bike group from Birmingham hospital at 8.30am, taken to the airport, put on a plane and flown to Inverness.
“We picked it up at this end, and delivered it to the hospital for the patient by 12.30pm. So really it was three charities working together to get an important medicaction to a patient. There was a very limited time window — the medication had to be delivered within a timeframe for the patient.”
Although details of the medication remain confidential for the patient’s privacy, Gordon confirmed that it could be described as “life-saving or life-changing”.
He added: “This was part of a new partnership between Blood Bikes and CAS… this was the very first time we have done this sort of thing for a Highland patient. It functioned like clockwork, it was very smooth and easy to function — but of course, without the charities to carry it out, it wouldn’t function.
“It was nice to see different Blood Bikes groups working together — we are all part of the same governing organisation, but we are all independent charities, so it was good to see two of us partnering together. And we do that quite often, if for example a patient’s blood samples needed to get to Edinburgh, we would pair up with the Blood Bike group there and collaborate — we call it a relay. This job was a relay with an aeroplane instead.”
When asked what would have happened for a job like this if it wasn’t for the public donation-funded Blood Bikes charity, Gordon said: “There’s always ways around things… they could have phoned a taxi, but this was planned over a ten-day period in advance. We knew the medication was being prepared and we knew the dates, so it was a well-oiled machine.”
HAIBB, which operates 365 days a year, has covered nearly 110,000 miles between October 2023 to September 2024. To donate, visit www.haibloodbikes.co.uk
