Today I got soaked to the skin, was cold, had cramp and didn't get time for a smoke. To cap it all I left my cigs in my hi vis pocket and they got soaked through. It cost me the price of another pack of twenty to replace my soggy ones, £23 in fuel because I don't make regular donations so I opt to pay for what I use and the price of a sandwich from a vending machine at Wansbeck Hospital.
The thing is I'm absolutely buzzing. What a day and just how I imagined it when we had those first meetings in 2012. I did five jobs, ran over my hand over time, coped with minor problems, attended our stand at the NHS motor show in Gosforth, got a big thank you from a little old lady who I delivered medication to and I might just have had a hand in saving a new born baby's life. It feels good and I want more.
At 10.30am I took a job from control to pick blood up from NHS Blood and Transport (NHSBT) at 12.00 noon and take it to Darlington Memorial Hospital (DMH). After I hung up I realised that because of the pick-up time, my South shift rider colleague had time to travel up for that job and I would be left free for work up here in the North. I phoned him and control and arranged for him to do the job. Five minutes later control called again with a job from University Hospital of North Durham (UHND) to take samples to DMH. I told them to put the South rider’s name on the job and called him to get him to pick the samples up from UHND on his way to NHSBT then deliver both to DMH. This left me free and I'm sure the guy at control thought I didn't want to go out in the rain. As it happens there was no blood to pick up from NHSBT. They knew nothing about it so the South rider just delivered the samples from UHND but spoke to the girl who ordered the blood. As it turned out, it was a mistake on her part when ordering the blood and she had to re order it. Meanwhile as phone calls were toing and froing other calls were being made to our number. Because the blood bike hotline was so busy with the saga of the missing blood the overflow was re directed the other calls to Peter our chairman, who ended up taking jobs... coordinator trainer in the making.
The moral of this story is that you can help the control to make the right decisions when deciding which rider to dispatch. Don't be afraid to suggest they give a job to another rider who is better placed than you.
