SERV Kent Bloodrunners

SERV Kent Bloodrunners

Services by Emergency Response Volunteers, Kent, is a registered charity which was established in 1993 though it has its origins in the 1960s when a few volunteers began a voluntary emergency service to deliver blood by motorcycle to local hospitals.

 The charity now has just over 200 volunteers including Trevor Sayer, an experienced volunteer and fundraiser, who gives talks to raise awareness and finance as the organisation relies entirely on donations.

As Trevor said, the aim of the charity is simply to save lives by delivering blood from the Regional Blood Donation Centre to hospitals throughout Kent every night between 7.30pm until 7.30am.  The charity delivers not just blood and blood products, but milk for premature babies; support for kidney dialysis patients at home; medicines, equipment and supplies to vulnerable people at home. It not only delivers to the seven major hospitals in Kent but to Demelza and Ellenor Hospices and Benenden Hospital.

Most of the volunteers use their own motorcycle or car and provide their own fuel whilst on duty.  The charity now has a fleet of five cars and six bikes which are shared by volunteers.  The headquarters is at the M2 Medway Services, Rainham. A relay system of transferring blood boxes and other deliveries between riders or drivers at changeover points operates to get deliveries from their origin to hospitals across the county.  The changeover points are usually all-night garages or motorway service stations.

The county is divided into two regions, north and east, and a rota of volunteers is arranged by a Controller in each region who contacts volunteers on call when they are needed to make a delivery. The Controller will also arrange for any changeover points. Volunteers may receive no call outs on a shift but more normally it will be one or two and possibly three.  It is usual to do two or three shifts a month.  Daytime shifts for deliveries of milk, medication or dialysis support are also an option for volunteers.

Volunteers are expected to have an Advanced Riding or Driving Certificate and will be helped to achieve that standard if they don’t have it.  They will also receive training in blood products and transport of blood and other samples.  Most riders can carry one blood box on a motorcycle; this has to be securely attached with straps, net and a cover.  A car can carry more and larger boxes of blood which is an advantage.

The Charity provides a collection and delivery service of donated breast milk from centralised milk banks to premature baby units in four Kent hospitals.  This human milk has been shown to benefit premature and sick babies and has increased their prospects of survival.  The service is part of a framework developed between the National Association of Bloodbikes and the Human Milk Foundation.

In 2013 the charity began working with Kent Air Ambulance, now Air Ambulance for Kent, Surrey and Sussex. A helicopter was modified to carry a blood box containing four litres of blood which would allow for transfusion at the scene of an accident and could save lives, which has been the case over the years.  The blood carried is group ‘O’ as this can be received by everyone. This was the first partnership between an Air Ambulance and a Blood Bike charity. The Surtees Foundation became involved in raising money for the partnership and supported many other such partnerships across the country.  Every night since 4^th February 2013 a volunteer has collected a replacement blood box from the William Harvey Hospital to take to the helicopter base, first at Marden (when it was just Kent Air Ambulance) and now at Redhill.

Serv Kent is a voluntary service provided free of charge and saves the NHS thousands of pounds each year.  Its work goes on largely unnoticed by the public, but it is recognised by the major hospitals as an essential service.  IT has dealt with 6000 calls each year in recent times. Since 1993 it has completed 60479 journeys, 38,501 NHS blood and sample transfers, 2,916 home dialysis deliveries, 1,415 milk runs, 890 transplant medications and 263 Hospice supports.  Since 2013 it has completed 4,953 air ambulance support journeys.

It is no wonder that it achieved the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, the highest voluntary award, in 2018.