Tests ensure charity safely delivers emergency blood
Service by Emergency Rider Volunteers (SERV) is a registered charity that transports blood and other urgently required medical items to hospitals. The service is run by volunteers, is completely free of charge to the NHS and covers the South East of England.
For many years, the NHS used a standard insulated box for the transport of blood which could maintain its contents at the correct temperature for two hours. These were being phased out and replaced by a more modern alternative that would last eight hours. However, temperature tests on the boxes had been carried out with NHS Blood and Transport vans in mind and not the motorbikes which SERV use.
Tim Goodman, Chairman of SERV, explains: “We use bikes rather than vans to transport emergency supplies as they are much quicker. However, an ambient temperature is much harder to maintain on a motor bike as it is open to the elements. We could have done the tests ourselves, but realised that results from an independent expert would give our hospital clients greater assurance that the blood delivered was sound.”
SERV therefore approached TÜV SÜD Product Service to help it identify what the time parameters were for transportation before the temperature inside the new boxes changed. SERV delivered 10 units of out of date blood to TÜV SÜD to use in the tests. While the hospitals could not release this blood into the system, it still had the same physical properties to ensure that the test results were as accurate as possible.
TÜV SÜD tested two insulated boxes, maintaining one at - 5oC and the other at +35oC to replicate potentially extreme temperatures. Several thermocouples were placed in different areas within each box to monitor any temperature change. This would help SERV to understand the optimum position within the box for maintaining blood temperature effectively. During the two-day test, only three positions within the boxes maintained the temperature at +35oC for less than eight hours. Other positions within the boxes maintained the temperature for between 12 and 27 hours.
“It’s highly unlikely that we will be transporting blood at a constant temperature of +35oC in the UK. Also, our maximum point-to-point delivery time is two hours, so we would still remain well within the tolerances required for these boxes. However, this was extremely useful information for us, as while the box temperature would remain stable in an air-conditioned van, they are much more exposed and susceptible to the elements on a bike.
“We have therefore changed our processes to negate any risk. If daytime temperatures reach +30oC or more, we will not transport by bike, but that would of course have to be a serious summer heat wave in this country! Most importantly TÜV SÜD have provided us with credible data from an independent expert that proves to hospitals that we can deliver to them a reliable and uncontaminated supply of emergency blood when they need it,” concluded Goodman.
