Major snow hitting twice this winter made getting to work a dicey adventure for many Christchurch and Dunedin nurses.
When buses stop running and the snow banks up in your driveway and street, it can be a dilemma whether it is wise to venture out on the roads, particularly in the hill suburbs.
Snow is just another new challenge for Wayne Champion, Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) incident controller for Canterbury District Health Board, since being seconded to Christchurch from Greymouth after the February quake.
Heather Casey, director of mental health nursing for Southern District Health Board, says the hilly city means snow makes it really difficult to staff both Dunedin and her own hilltop-based Wakari Hospital, as well as provide community-based services.
She says it ends up being “a bit like a military operation” getting nurses in and out to work. “Some staff can’t get in due to closed roads etc; however we use the local four-wheel drive club for those that we can get a vehicle to. And nurses are great at times like this and really go the extra mile,” says Casey. “They often stay on shift until someone comes to relieve them and will often work double shifts. It’s a real challenge, but with tremendous good will we manage.”
In a year in Christchurch when nature seems determined to repeat its challenges Champion says the board managed to improve its response when the second major snow hit the city in mid-August. He said the second time round it brought the four-wheel-drive response team to the board’s own operation centre, and had about 35 volunteer club drivers working around the clock, plus volunteers from its own staff supporting hospitals, general practices, district nursing services, meals-on-wheels and resthomes to continue delivering services.
Champion said many board staff managed to get to work by themselves or with colleagues who had four-wheel-drive vehicles. Though the emergency four-wheel-drive team did transport about 300 mostly essential clinical staff to and from work from all around the city and rural satellite towns. Staff stranded at home were asked to clear the snow off their letterboxes so drivers could track them down on the heavily snow-clad streets. When the snow was particularly treacherous, some staff in the hill suburbs were asked to walk down to the flat to be met by a driver, but on most occasions the vehicles could make it to their homes.
