When on duty with Freewheelers, there is a word that is dangerous to speak. If you must say it, do so softly, and hope nobody hears ...

The Flying Crane had been parked up all Wednesday night, waiting for the call that did not come. But at 2217, the phone call came, and the rider got dressed. Just as he stepped out of the door, the phone rang again. The Coordinator said the job had been cancelled. The on call Pharmacist in Bristol had discovered that the drug that the rider was to collect from him in Bristol and take to the Royal United Hospital (RUH) in Bath was out of stock. Relax.

Then at just past midnight, the phone rang again. The patient, now at the RUH, needed this drug urgently and the only stocks were held at University College Hospital in London. This time the call had come from the RUH on call Pharmacist, and she confirmed that if delivery of the drug was left until normal working hours on Thursday, the patient’s life would be at risk.

This is a time to pause and consider. On the one hand, a patient has a very real need for this drug. On the other hand, if we accept this job at this time, this rider will be riding deep into the early hours of Thursday, after a full and normal day’s activities. By the time he gets home he will have been up for nearly 18 hours. Riding a motorcycle safely requires much, much more than knowing how to operate the controls properly. That skill set is just the beginning, the bottom step of the ladder. A safe and capable rider knows how to identify risks and how best to manage them. Riding when tired is a risk. Only the rider will know how he is placed to manage this – at that time, and in those circumstances.

The Coordinator’s task now is to make sure that the rider has all the information he (or she) needs to decide if this job is one to accept. The rider then has to decide if they will accept the job. The rider’s task at the point of decision is to be honest and very self-aware. This is just one of the reasons Freewheelers is very careful about whom it takes on as a rider. Sometimes the easy decision is to accept the job, but that may not be the best decision. The last thing we need, and the patient needs, is for a rider to accept a job and then to have an accident because they were too tired to complete it safely. Then we have turned a poor situation for the patient into a bad one for the rider, and a bad one for the patient as well.

In this case, having considered the situation and his own abilities, state of health and known capabilities in managing riding over very long days, the rider came to his decision. He was until recently a Flying Instructor for the Royal Air Force, and knows very well that flying and riding a motorcycle are similar in some ways. He is also very well aware of the saying that ‘there are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but no old, bold pilots’. He said he was ready to go. But the Coordinator’s task is not yet complete, for he (or she) has to be ready to challenge the decision, taking into account all that they know.

In this case, the Coordinator agreed with the decision and told the RUH on call Pharmacist that we would do this job.

So the journey began. A crisp, clear night made for good riding conditions. Traffic levels were as low as they were ever going to be. When he arrived at University College Hospital, the rider found that he was expected and that the drug was waiting for him. That is as it should be, but not every job runs so smoothly. He got to the RUH and handed over the drug at 0410, which was just ten minutes off the estimate that he and the Coordinator had made when discussing the job. By any standard that was a result.

The Flying Crane was refuelled, and the rider back home at 0500. One job that evening, but it offered the patient a much better chance than they had before the job was done. One job, but it took five hours from the phone call asking if we could do this, to arriving home safely. One job, but it was 240 miles long.

The word? You may hear it when a Teacher enters a noisy room. It begins with ‘q’.