In the News Shock as Blood bike volunteers scrapped

[Jaws]

The Blood bike service run at virtually no cost to the NHS is to be replaced with a private company who are to be paid £14m !
Next time the NHS pleads poverty I shall tell them where to stick their begging bowl.

https://www.bmf.co.uk/news/show/blood-bikes-volunteers-replaced-by-company-in-14-million-deal

 

[Ned52]

 

[Cougar377]

A private company that is owned by the local NHS Trust. It stinks.

Signed the petition just now....

https://www.change.org/p/warwickshi...f_combo_share_initial&utm_term=share_petition

 

[Jaws]

A private company that is owned by the local NHS Trust. It stinks.

Signed the petition just now....

https://www.change.org/p/warwickshi...f_combo_share_initial&utm_term=share_petition

So jobs for the boys again
Quango springs to mind

 

[andyBeaker]

So jobs for the boys again
Quango springs to mind

In fairness john there has to be two sides to the story.

Personally I wouldn't sign anything without understanding both sides.

The statement from the Trust isn't the best but it does suggest that they have reasons for doing what they are doing. It would have been good to understand them.

Not dissing the volunteers who man the service at all, they have done a fine job.

 

[Cougar377]

Creating the Trusts in the first place was quite probably the worst decision ever foisted on the NHS.
Trying to run the NHS as a for profit corporate entity has created the ridiculous diversity of policies, procedures, staffing and equipment that now plagues everything it does.

I don't understand why it's not run along similar lines to the Armed Forces. Standardised processes and procedures and equipment throughout. It wouldn't be perfect by any means, but it would be a start.

 

[DEG5Y]

While appreciating the part the Blood Bikes have played over the years, did they not come about purely because of the under funding previously?
So shouldn't this be looked on as some form of victory?

 

[Jaws]

While appreciating the part the Blood Bikes have played over the years, did they not come about purely because of the under funding previously?
So shouldn't this be looked on as some form of victory?

That is a way of looking at it..
But it does not detract that the NHS is supposedly cash strapped, so money spent in one place will have been taken from somewhere else.............And you can bet your life it was not by getting shot of a load of useless pen pushers, but from a front line service
So while said pen pusher will be happy and feel secure a lot of folk else where ( ultimately the patient ) will suffer

 

[andyBeaker]

I have read the online petition and frankly have no idea what it is trying to achieve.

If it had asked for the matter to be investigated independently that would have made sense.

I know many won't agree, but fir a trust to enter into a £14m contract many hoops would need to have been jumped through.

However, as far as I could,see,there is nothing on the trust website so hopefully they might now be thinking about releasing something to bring transparency to why they have done what they have done. Whatever that is.

Communication.....

 

[Nige F]

I've been a member of this group of blood bikers since I retired. The news of us having the rug pulled from under our feet came as a complete shock.

As with any charity there is so much work goes on behind the scenes... Fundraising training etc and the public support is immense. I've seen 10 and 20 pound notes going into our collection buckets.

The contract was all sorted by the NHS months, ago but no one bothered to inform us until the new company was up and running... A real shame but I guess a sign of the times unfortunately.

As for petitions and campaigns... Will they work. I somehow doubt it....