Warwickshire And Solihull Blood Bikes
Charity 1156751
Overview
Summary
Warwickshire And Solihull Blood Bikes appears to be a volunteer-run piece of regional health infrastructure rather than simply a transport charity. Its role is to make urgent, out-of-hours clinical logistics available without charge to NHS services across Coventry, Warwickshire, Solihull and Birmingham. The organisation’s value seems to lie in combining round-the-clock reliability with community-funded capacity, reducing both operational pressure and transport costs for health providers while linking hospitals, clinics, homes, blood services and air ambulance operations.
Operational geography
Evidence and reasoning
Supporting evidence
Edgbaston
Confidence: high
Direct current evidence identifies Birmingham's National Blood Bank/NHS Blood and Transplant as a service location. NHS Blood and Transplant locates its Birmingham operation in Edgbaston.
- Warwickshire & Solihull Blood Bikes, 'Hospitals' page
The charity lists the National Blood Bank in Birmingham, also known as NHSBT, among the organisations it serves. - NHS Blood and Transplant, 'Therapeutic apheresis units' page
NHS Blood and Transplant gives its Birmingham location as Edgbaston, Birmingham.
Sutton Trinity
Confidence: high
The charity's current hospitals page identifies Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield as a service location, and Birmingham City Council records place the hospital in Sutton Trinity ward.
- Warwickshire & Solihull Blood Bikes, 'Hospitals' page
The charity lists Good Hope Hospital, Sutton Coldfield, among the hospitals it serves. - Birmingham City Council planning record, Good Hope Hospital
The council record identifies Good Hope Hospital as being in Sutton Trinity ward.
Heartlands
Confidence: medium
The trustees' annual report explicitly names Heartlands Hospital as a local NHS partner supported during the 2024-25 reporting year. Birmingham City Council records locate Birmingham Heartlands Hospital in Heartlands ward, but a current service-specific webpage does not separately name the hospital.
- Warwickshire and Solihull Blood Bikes, Chair's Annual Report for year ending March 2025, filed with the Charity Commission
The report states that the charity supported local NHS partners including Heartlands Hospital. - Birmingham City Council planning record, Birmingham Heartlands Hospital
The council record identifies Birmingham Heartlands Hospital as being in Heartlands ward.
Remaining uncertainties
- The evidence supports a regional operating model rather than a Birmingham-only or neighbourhood-based one: the charity states that it serves NHS trusts across Coventry, Warwickshire, Solihull and Birmingham, across an area of 650 square miles.
- Available evidence establishes Birmingham hospital and blood-service collection/delivery points, but does not identify all Birmingham clinics, patient homes, laboratories or individual journey routes. It therefore does not justify treating every Birmingham ward as an evidenced operational area.
- No evidence establishes a Birmingham premises, vehicle base or office operated by the charity. Its registered correspondence address is in Nuneaton and should not be treated as an operational site.
- The charity's service relationship with Heartlands Hospital is evidenced in the 2024-25 annual report; more recent public material confirms Birmingham-wide NHS support but does not independently list Heartlands Hospital.
Additional evidence needed
- A current service schedule, partner list or annual report specifying all active Birmingham collection and delivery sites.
- Confirmation from the charity or University Hospitals Birmingham of which individual Birmingham hospital sites currently receive routine or on-call services.
- Information on any Birmingham vehicle base, storage facility, dispatch point or other physical operational site, if one exists.
Areas of work
- The Advancement Of Health Or Saving Of Lives
Who they help
- Children/young People
- Elderly/old People
- People With Disabilities
- The General Public/mankind
How they help
- Provides Human Resources
- Provides Services
Discoveries involving this organisation
The Atlas has not published any Discoveries involving this organisation yet.
Observations
A volunteer-funded extension of NHS logistics
The available evidence suggests the charity operates as a complementary logistics service for NHS organisations: it performs clinically urgent transport that trusts might otherwise need to arrange or fund themselves, while remaining organisationally independent and community-funded.
Why it matters
This frames the organisation as part of the local health system’s operational resilience, not only as a charitable beneficiary service. Its relationships with NHS trusts are likely central to its impact and sustainability.
Show evidence
“The charity provides an out of hours medical courier service to the NHS.”
Source:Organisation“It provides a cost-free service to NHS Trusts in Coventry, Warwickshire, Solihull and Birmingham.”
Source:Organisation“It reported over £300,000 in cost savings to NHS trusts within its community in 2024.”
Source:Organisation
Reliability appears to be its distinctive capability
A 24-hour, year-round service handling blood, drugs, samples, breast milk, equipment and documents may indicate that dependable availability, rather than any single item transported, is the organisation’s core offer.
Why it matters
This helps explain why a volunteer model can be strategically important: it fills time-sensitive logistical needs that may arise outside routine health-service transport arrangements.
Show evidence
“The charity's object includes transporting urgently needed blood, drugs, human tissue and other medical requirements between hospitals and blood transfusion banks.”
Source:Charity Commission“The charity operates a 24hr 365 days a year collection and delivery service.”
Source:Organisation“It reported 3,284 deliveries and 118,112 miles travelled in 2024.”
Source:Organisation
The air ambulance link may make it a connector between care pathways
Its daily delivery and collection of blood for the local air ambulance suggests the charity may connect hospital-based supply chains with emergency and pre-hospital care, rather than serving only hospital-to-hospital transfers.
Why it matters
This relationship could make the organisation important across multiple stages of urgent care and identify the air ambulance as a potentially significant operational partner.
Show evidence
“The charity facilitates the daily delivery and collection of blood to its local air ambulance.”
Source:Organisation“It transports items to hospitals, clinics and homes.”
Source:Organisation
- Which NHS trusts, hospitals, blood services and air ambulance organisations formally rely on the service.
- Whether demand, coverage area and service types are expanding, stable or constrained by volunteer and fleet capacity.
- How service reliability, clinical urgency and NHS cost savings are measured and independently validated.
Remaining uncertainties
- Service-level data showing origins, destinations, timing, item categories and unmet demand over several years.
- Partnership agreements or testimony from NHS trusts and the local air ambulance about operational dependence and outcomes.
- Information on volunteer recruitment, retention, fleet capacity, funding mix and contingency arrangements.
Additional evidence needed
Charity Commission profile
Activities
We operate a 24hr 365 days a year collection and delivery service to support the medical requirements of our local hospitals. We transport items such as blood, samples, drugs, breast milk, medical equipment and key documents to support hospitals and patients and to relieve the costs of transport to the NHS. We also facilitate the daily delivery and collection of blood to our local air ambulance.
Charity objects
TO RELIEVE SICKNESS AND PROTECT HEALTH BY THE PROVISION OF TRANSPORT OF URGENTLY NEEDED BLOOD, DRUGS, HUMAN TISSUE AND OTHER MEDICAL REQUIREMENTS BETWEEN HOSPITALS AND BLOOD TRANSFUSION BANKS, PRIMARILY BUT NOT EXCLUSIVELY IN WARWICKSHIRE AND SOLIHULL AND SURROUNDING AREAS.