Hospital Familiarisation (HF)

After GMP you will be required to attend one of each regional HF; these will generally have been pre-scheduled for you.

Experienced riders/drivers will escort you, using a marked vehicle, to key locations which you will visit regularly during live duties **.

**Depending on resources available at the time and requests from the hospitals, a duty rider based in the south region could still be asked to fulfil a request in the north region (and vv), hence all 3 Hospital Familiarisation sessions are required.

In order to make the best use of the HF and the Run Leader’s knowledge and experience to answer questions and provide clarifications; before attending your booked HF sessions, it is highly recommended that you review

• GMP Part 1 as a refresher
• The relevant locations for the regional HF (see below)
• HF Candidate Briefing and download the session route maps (below). Note: these are not the same as the Preferred Routes for duty, merely the route between stops.

The ride will be led at a pace appropriate to road, traffic and weather conditions.
The run will operate under a ‘Buddy system’ so participants should always ensure they can see the rider behind to ensure they too can follow the route.
If anyone becomes separated from the group, they should continue to follow the route ahead as the run leader will wait at any significant junction on the route to ensure all participants are in sight, so participants should not feel pressured into unsafe actions.
If anyone is unable to continue, please contact the run leader to let them know.
At all times participants must ride for themselves and be responsible for their own actions.

The regional HFs visit the locations indicated below. The route* taken on these events is for practicality and convenience; a pragmatic linking of stopping points.

*It may be subject to change on the day as advised by the Run Leader, to take account of such as road closures/diverts as appropriate.

• North HF; visits Milton Keynes General (MKG), Northampton General (NGH) and Kettering General (KGH).
  Also discussed; M6 Junction 2 Rendezvous(RV) , NHSBT Birmingham.
• Central HF: visits NHSBT Oxford (JR Issue Desk), JR Milk Bank, JR Path Lab, Stoke Mandeville Hosp., Amersham Hosp., Wycombe General Hosp., Townlands Memorial Hosp. (Henley)
• South HF: visits Witney Community Hosp., Abingdon Community Hosp., Royal Berkshire Hosp., Wokingham Community Hosp., Wexham Park Hospital.
  Also discussed; Heatherwood Hosp., M25 Cobham Services RV, Great Western Hosp. RV (Swindon)

The Hospital A-Z provides the on-line presentations*** for each location which include the Preferred Routes for consignment transport during a duty plus specific details for collection/delivery at the location. Please review the relevant ones for your regional HF prior to attendance as this will help you assimilate the information on the day.

*** Existing details for the most frequently visited sites have been updated with new pdfs which include preferred route description and street views of the final run-in, along with access details.

Change History:

24 Sept 2022: Candidate briefing updated, Maps unchanged.

9 Oct 2022: 2022 maps & briefing consistent with docs found under Member Training folder

15 Apr 2023: Run Leaders must use a fleet bike

3 Oct 2023: pre-scheduled HFs, fleet vehicle for run leader includes car trips