How we helped trusts beat the big snow
The Problem
The unexpected snowstorm of February 2009 was a test: maintaining our usual service for Trusts and stepping in to help Trust staff travel to work and prioritise patients to ensure those with the highest clinical needs were looked after.
The Action
The weekend before the big snowfall a senior management meeting was held with our own emergency planning officer. With the imminent arrival of snow and freezing conditions, we did a risk assessment and business continuity plans were implemented across our network of ambulance stations and depots in England and Wales.
Our teams of “overnight make ready” staff were called in to make sure our vehicles were started, warmed up, thoroughly cleaned and ready to roll; they also ensured that access to and from our ambulance stations was kept clear for our staff to arrive at the start of their shifts.
Control room and customer services staff kept contracted trusts constantly updated on attendance to out-patients clinics while our telephonists co-ordinated with trusts advising patients about cancelled appointments.
Dialysis patient journeys were given a high priority and additional resources were called in to help handle our 800 regular renal journeys a day; in the final analysis every patient that was required to attend for dialysis was collected with minimal disruption.
We also helped ferry key hospital staff to and from work so that the trusts could operate as normally as possible while our specialist medical courier services also coped with the treacherous roads.
Thanks
Margaret Fry, Head of Nursing, Medicine Programme Group, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust:
“…thanks to Medical Services for their quick response to our travel needs, both getting staff across sites urgently and getting staff in from far and wide for their shifts…also the drivers for still continuing to work in difficult conditions…we could not have staffed the wards and maintained medical cover without their input”
Peter Harding, Head Biomedical Scientist, Brighton & Sussex University NHS Trust:
“…a big thank you to your team for the effort and commitment that they showed to us and our patients over the last few days. We think they all did a great job.”
Cliff Hammond-Reed, Deputy Director of Environment, Homerton Hospital NHS Trust:
“Medical Services continues to help the Trust through all weathers foul and fair and certainly rallied to the cause during the trying times of the last 48 hours”
Liane Pilgrim, Sister, Haemodialysis Unit, Great Ormond Street Hospital:
“…a big thank to the drivers for getting the kids here through the snow yesterday. It was no mean feat in the weather conditions. I realise that other Trusts had suspended transport but you still managed to get our kids here and home again.”