Nurses battle through snow to care for patients

Staff from Swindon’s First City Nursing have battled through the snow to help the people in Swindon who rely on daily domiciliary care.

Over 100 staff have been out across the town delivering care to those who need it, as well as supporting colleagues by delivering provisions and digging their cars out of the snow to enable them to reach their next visit.

Emergency action was put in force on Thursday evening to prepare for the predicted snow, however contingency planning had been in action since Monday.  Throughout the night the Out of Hours team had been helping staff navigate the difficulties caused by the weather and as soon as Head Office opened at 7am on Friday morning additional teams were mobilised and people and vehicles sent out to support their colleagues.

Jo Chandler, Head of Operations at First City, said: “Since Monday we have had our bad weather business continuity plan in place to ensure that as soon as the forecasted snow and ice hit that we would still be able to deliver care to our 700 customers across Swindon.

“We have closed all non-essential activity in our head office and as many of our office-based staff are fully trained as Health Care Assistants precisely for times such as these, they were redeployed to help their colleagues in the community.  Our priority is that our customers are safe and receiving the care they need despite of the weather conditions.”

First City vehicles, as well as volunteers with suitable vehicles, have been out providing support to staff who might become stuck during customer visits, and staff have even been carrying out their visits on foot to ensure that no-one misses out on the care they need.

Managing Director Stephen Trowbridge added: “We’re so proud of our entire team – our internal staff, frontline staff and out of hours team – for how they have all pulled together and gone the extra mile to ensure that our customers are safe and cared for.  We have had teams of people digging others out of the snow to ensure that care can continue, as well as staff volunteering to take extra duties to make sure that no customer is missed out.  The commitment comes from everyone who delivers care in Swindon - our Lead Provider Partners are also out in the town in this weather too.  We’ve even been contacted by members of public who have been keen to help their own local community in this extreme weather, which goes to show how supportive the Swindon community is.

“Everyone who needs support today and tomorrow will receive it and this is testament to our staff’s dedication to supporting our customers and the careful bad weather continuity planning we have in place which can be quickly put in action.”

For more information on First City Nursing, visit www.firstcitynursing.co.uk or call 01793 434222.