I have taken this from a bloodbikes website. If you live in this area you should be asking why a perfectly good, established FREE service is being terminated for one that will probably cost thousands. Read below and ask the question!!
I suspect the private company will have a director or such who is known to someone who is involved with awarding this contract.
NABB are a large countrywide organisation and adhere to fairly strict regs so I imagine that there is adequate insurance in there. But unfortunately it’s probably another case of a Mercedes turning up on someone’s driveway unexplainably
Ok here’s the explanation: the Hospital Trust seems to have forgotten to ask what the Blood Bank did for transporting blood and then gave a contract to a company with no get out clauses. Looks like someone’s got a new Benzy!!
The NHS is a curious sacred cow. The British Medical Association vehemently opposed its creation and are now incapable of thinking of life without it. I only know the Armed Forces work best on the battlefield where the MoD people who know the price of everything and the value of nothing are nowhere to be seen. So with the NHS - the system needs to be run by its clinicians, not politicians setting clinical targets devolved to generalist managers. Which business is run by its accounts manager? He/she is the financial navigator not the helmsman. We also have a curious way of combining ‘who pays’ (the taxpayer) with ‘who provides’. Too much political dogma about privatisation v. efficient provision. Fundamentally we have a pretty Stalinist system devoid of choice partially offset by the labours of its staff. And when it comes to contracts how about catering? I cannot imagine anyone parting with their own money for what gets slopped out as appetising and nutritious in far too many hospitals. If you started with a blank sheet of paper.......and why has no one copied our system? Plenty of developed countries spend MORE but in different ways. We are fixated by cost but not outcomes. Google auftragstaktik ! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission-type_tactics
Sadly it comes to accountability, while we all understand and appreciate the efforts made by the volunteers, the organisation will look at it differently. Sprinter has hit the nail on the head. Who will be responsible when things go wrong? If service suffers, as a voluntary organisation with limited resources, the hospital has little recourse but a contacted organisation such as QE Facilities will have standards and targets to surpass. (although a brown envelope through the front door of a contract managers home probably happened too, like in every government and private tender). I agree that it is wrong on many levels, unfortunately money talks
It seems to be a stupid idea. It would be interesting to know if the W&S Blood Bikes have ever failed to respond when called upon,,,,,,,,I don’t know but would doubt it.
Make you wonder who is gaining or who has an interest in starting to pay for the service in an already cash starved service. Well we shall watch this space. All one can say is thanks to the people from Blood Bikes. For all you have done and all the people you have saved. God Bless you one and all Regards Joe
Thanks TC, inyeresting reading I suppose the facts are almost there, Bloodbikers only operated when the NHS Pathology vehicles didn't, so overnight and bank holidays and only supplied emergency requirements which is why there is a difference in delivery figures, I wonder what percentage of that was out of hours? so its not the amount but the urgency that mattered. Again, the samples, 0.01%, well if urine, stool and saliva samples were removed from the overall figure I wonder what the percentage would be then, probably still large but bring it down to urgent and overnight and again the difference would narrow. 40 staff at QE including management and admin so how many drivers to cover 24hrs, 7 days a week 365 days a year? considering that bloodbikers might have 5 on duty overnight they still have a load more on standby for that moment when demand increases. Still it gives 40 more people a job, but I wonder what happens to the NHS Pathology lab drivers who drove the blood etc around during the day?
They might change their tune when we get around to November 5th again and the burns units are screaming for more units of whole. I was only in Bloodbikes for just over two years and we did Saturday nights mainly. The look of relief on that doctor's face when I pulled in to the casualty car park of Sutton General at 2am on Bonfire Night with a box full from the Tooting bloodbank will stay with me forever. He pretty much snatched it out of my hands and ran towards the surgical wing shouting a thank you over his shoulder. I'll be amazed if they get that sort of service from a commercial company.
Looks like the decision has been reversed and the blood bikes are back. http://www.stratford-herald.com/100659-return-blood-bikes.html
You just have to watch the programme fraud in the NHS to see what goes on. People in a position thinking they can get away with. It makes my piss boil. Common sense has prevailed.
