Bike Medic’s here to help
Free repairs for NHS staff extended to all key workers in area
A free roadside bike repair service for NHS Forth Valley staff has been extended to cover all local key workers following a successful six-week pilot.
Charity Forth Environment Link launched The Bike Medic initiative at the end of September to support and encourage key workers to keep on cycling to work during the coronavirus pandemic.
The service was initially open to NHS staff, but is now available to all key workers across Forth Valley.
The free call-out service covers the whole of the Forth Valley Health Board region and operates in a similar way to car breakdown recovery, with bikes being repaired at the roadside for free or taken away for repair.
Onward travel is also covered, so if a bike can’t be easily fixed key workers will be offered a courtesy bike to allow them to finish their journey or will be given a lift to work or home.
The scheme has been warmly received by NHS Forth Valley staff. Dr Raj Burgul, a consultant radiologist at Forth Valley Royal Hospital, was one of the scheme’s first callouts. He said: “I was cycling down a quiet country lane in the pitch dark when I got a double puncture. I didn’t have a back-up plan – until I remembered about The Bike Medic. I’m so thankful for this prompt rescue service. I was safely taken home in the comfort of their electric van. In these stressful times this scheme gives us hospital staff confidence and security to keep on cycling, especially through the dark winter months.”
NHS Forth Valley Clinical Coder Tracey-anne Wilson has also benefitted from the free service. She said: “I got a puncture on my way home from work, so I phoned The Bike Medic. Ryan arrived within 15 minutes. As it was getting dark by this time, he put my bike in the van, gave me a lift home and fixed my bike outside my house. It’s a brilliant service which gives me peace of mind while commuting to work. It would have been a long walk home for me without this service. Keep up the good work.” Over 60 health professionals are currently borrowing electric bikes and bikes from Forth Environment Link’s Active
Travel Hubs in Stirling and Falkirk – with a further 300 cycles available to all key workers for free through the charity’s public bike share schemes, nextbike Stirling and Forth Bike.
Forth Environment Link was initially inspired to provide cycling support to the NHS Forth Valley staff by a local nurse who approached one of the charity’s active travel hubs at the beginning of lockdown for help fixing her bike.
The charity’s Active Travel Co-ordinator, Ray Burr, said: “We offered the nurse an e-bike from our free lending library while her bike was in for repair and that snowballed into us providing 75 electric bikes for key workers at the height of lockdown, as well as wrap around cycling advice and support. Since then, we’ve been inundated with enquiries from key workers wanting to ditch the car and we’ve been only too happy to help by sourcing as many bikes as we can. We even have a waiting list; such is the demand for cycling.”
All local key workers in Forth Valley can now access The Bike Medic service for free by calling 03333 208635 between 7am and 7pm Monday to Friday. General enquiries about the service can also be emailed to bikemedic@ forthenvironmentlink.org
The scheme is funded by The National Lottery Community Fund and Paths for All’s Smarter Choices, Smarter Places Open Fund.