|
Freewheelers
Emergency Voluntary Service is a registered charity providing an
out-of-hours emergency motorcycle courier
service to hospitals in the South West of England.
Riding For Life:
A
registered charity founded in 1991, Freewheelers EVS has a coverage area that includes
Somerset, North Somerset, Bristol, Bath
and West Wiltshire. Freewheelers is one of a number of groups
that cover
different parts of the country.
Our lifesaving service
to the NHS
is provided free of charge
and is
funded entirely by public donation
and
sponsorship. We are often referred to as blood bikes but we
do much more, transporting test samples, patient notes, X-rays, and
other medical supplies. In 2006 we made more than 1800
deliveries - a 50% increase on 2005. Details of our work can be
found in our 2005
Annual Report and our
Constitution.
Freewheelers EVS operates a fleet of specially
adapted Honda
Pan European motorcycles equipped with high visibility markings
plus blue lights and sirens for emergency use. These enable us to
save lives by delivering urgently required items. If our service
did not exist hospitals would be forced to use a costly and potentially slow
taxi or
commercial courier.
Freewheelers EVS is run entirely by volunteers. All our riders
hold an advanced
motorcycling qualification, such as the advanced riding test by
RoSPA, IAM,
or the BMF.
We also have a dedicated team of fund
raisers and telephone co-ordinators. Incoming requests from
hospitals are categorised by the on-duty co-ordinator as
non-urgent, urgent, or emergency and the nearest of our three
duty bikes is dispatched to assist.
Feel free to contact
us if you
would like more information.
Hospitals
and other NHS
institutions wishing to use the Freewheelers EVS service should
call our duty co-ordinator on 07050 601315 or 07005
993957 during the following hours:
Monday-Friday - 19:00 to 07:00
Weekends & Bank Holidays - 24 hours
|