Freewheelers is a registered charity, providing an emergency out of hours medical courier service at evenings and weekends to hospitals in the South-west of England.
Freewheelers Emergency Volunteer Service is based in Somerset, Bristol and Bath.
Freewheelers transports blood, patient notes, samples, X-rays and other medical
supplies by motorcycle, free of charge, as an alternative to other methods that hospitals would
have to pay for.
The service that Freewheelers provides to the NHS operates outside of normal working
hours - between 19:00 hrs and 07:00 hrs weekdays, from 19:00 hrs on Friday through to 07:00 hrs on
Monday. We also cover Bank Holidays.
Specially adapted Honda Pan European motorcycles, equipped with blue lights and sirens, enable us to
deliver urgently required items such as CT scans, X-rays and medical notes more effectively than many
alternatives. This saves the NHS the cost of sending items by taxi and can make a vital difference as
urgent deliveries can help save lives. When a hospital requires a delivery or pick-up then the
Freewheelers Duty Coordinator can be contacted to request a callout. The Coordinator is then
responsible in the allocation of the task to the nearest on-call rider.
Freewheelers is run solely by volunteers and is entirely funded through charitable donations. All riders
must be at least 25 years old and have passed the RoSPA/IAM Advanced Motorcycle Test.
Volunteer riders will normally be on call for a week. When on call
the rider must be able to respond should a hospital require Freewheelers' service. New volunteer
riders are always needed, as are fundraisers and telephone coordinators.