The Ross District Nursing Team were among the dedicated health care workers who braved terrible weather to deliver essential care to all the patients who needed it during the recent bad snowfall.

The District Nursing Team helps patients with chronic ill health, palliative care and patients who need regular treatment, such as those patients with cancer requiring special injections.

Sharon Waldis, Community Practitioner Teacher and District Nursing Sister said that the team are all really aware of how vital their work is. During the terrible weather they covered essential and critical care but this meant nurses walking long distances to reach patients and lots of friends, relations and partners who drive 4x4 vehicles were roped in to help.

The team covers a massive area, stretching from Tretire and Whitchurch to Linton and Gorsley. They generally see between eight to 13 patients each, every day and their current case load is about 550 patients.

This number is increasing as the emphasis shifts from patients having to have treatment in hospital to being cared for in the community.

Sharon said the true aim of the District Nursing Team is to keep people as well as possible, for as long as possible, in their own home. She said it is an increasingly stressful job as there is a shortage of nurses nationally.

Across the county there were many incidents of people going out of their way to help people during the terrible weather. Sharon said the District Nursing Team is one group who all pulled together.

Amanda Cole, the Community Staff Nurse and Lead Nurse for the Leg Club, which takes place in Henry Street Church every Thursday, told the Ross Gazette that the Club is one part of the team’s work but is very important. The idea of a Leg Club came from a retired nurse who wanted to improve the social contact for people with conditions affecting their legs.