Thank you to the amazing South West Blood Bikes
A charity which is run entirely by volunteers has clocked up nearly 63,000 miles to provide vital care for patients in Torbay and South Devon.
The South West Blood Bikes provides a free, out-of-hours service to transport essential medical supplies such as blood, plasma, platelets, donor breast milk, and pathology samples, to hospitals and hospices throughout Devon and beyond.
It operates a 24-hour service, 365 days a year, and in the past year we made 2,260 calls to the charity to ask for its support. Its couriers delivered an incredible 6, 373 items including 154 items for our cancer services and research; made 19 donor breast milk deliveries to our Special Care Baby Unit for babies who were born early or need some extra care; and 1,848 medicine deliveries to patient’s homes who would otherwise have waited in hospital before they could be discharged.
The bikers also carried 157 blood products and a whopping 3,477 pathology and biochemistry items.
We are so incredibly grateful to every single volunteer who helped support us and our patients, thank you. You can find our more about the South West Blood Bikes and its volunteering opportunities at South West Blood Bikes Charity.
NHS partnership is helping people to get online
Are you struggling to get online due to a lack of data? We’re working with the Good Things Foundation to offer low-income families, people working in health and social care staff and the people they care for pre-paid SIM cards for their mobile phone to help reduce digital exclusion.
The Good Things Foundation is the UK’s leading digital inclusion charity and is on a mission to “help everyone become digitally equal, able and safe, so that they can be happier, healthier and better off.”
Our partnership offers data on pre-loaded SIMs to anyone who is older than 18 and is from a low-income household and either has no or insufficient access to the internet at home, or cannot afford their existing monthly contract or top-up, and provides a life-line for people to manage their online appointments and stay connected with friends and relatives.
Helen Davies-Cox, our Head of Personalised Care said: “More and more people are using the internet and social media to manage their health appointments, do their shopping and keep in touch with friends and family.
“We have some of the most deprived communities in the country and want to do more to help people who are struggling financially by giving them free data to get online without having to worry about money. Our partnership with the Good Things Foundation is helping to directly addresses digital exclusion in our communities and providing a practical solution to help people to overcome some of the barriers they may face getting online. By providing free SIM cards, we’re empowering individuals to stay connected, access essential services, and improve their opportunities.”
For more information please visit Good Things Foundation, and to apply please ask a health care professional to apply for you.