Last week a special reception took place in the Full Circle Restaurant at St Mary’s Hospital.
The purpose of the reception was to recognise a whopping 45 individuals and teams who had been voted ‘NHS Snow Heroes’ by members of the public last month.
You might remember we ran a piece back in January after the heavy snow, calling for residents to nominate their Snow Heroes.
More than 70 snow heroes were nominated including volunteer 4×4 drivers, the switchboard team, the staff at Shackleton and the district nurses.
Kevin Flynn, Chief Executive of NHS Isle of Wight said, “The January snow was an excellent test of the resilience of our systems and our ability to respond and adapt to different situations. A tremendous number of staff really went the extra mile during the snow and the number nominated is a testament to the dedicated staff we have. Although, we weren’t able to recognise everyone, we hope we were able to thank many of those who performed exceptionally well during a challenging time. I also particularly want to thank the Coastguards and members of the public, particularly those in four wheel drive vehicles who helped us.”
Some of the citations were read out by the PCTs Non-Executive Directors and included:
“A team of nurses came to me everyday during the snowy weather, mostly on foot, even cycling. Their innovative ways of getting here were amazing, from snow boots, to spike soled shoes. The road I live in was extremely icy, no traffic could get here but the nurses did. I can not praise them high enough and hope that their dedication is recognised by all concerned.” (Leslie Parker, member of the public).
“SJ went out of her way to walk extremely important medication to our patients who were too ill or elderly an unable to come out because of the awful weather conditions. Some patients were completely out of her way, but that didn’t stop SJ’s determination to make sure as many patients as possible were taken care of. A man fell over in the snow and landed awkwardly in the road, SJ helped him onto the safety of the pavement made sure he was ok and then walked him to his house a good 5 minute walk away, his wife then came into the chemist the next day to thank SJ for her kindness and thoughtfulness in looking after her husband.” (Stefanie Wood, staff, Boots chemist).
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Image: marfis75 under CC BY-SA 2.0
