All of a sudden, on a Saturday afternoon three weeks before Christmas, Desmond’s unwelcome presence brought a huge range of challenges to our health services.
Storm Desmond flooded over 6000 properties in all corners of the county including around 100 of our own staff, and left in its wake huge disruption to our transport network with many roads closed due to flooding and structural damage, and leaving over 1000 bridges requiring inspection or work to repair them.
The challenges were particularly heightened for us, as a Trust covering the county of Cumbria with 4000 staff delivering 60 services from around 200 bases across the county.
Immediate challenges for our staff included battling to reach patients needing urgent care while feeling uncertain about how family, friends, colleagues and in some cases their own homes were affected.
There were so many excellent success stories that we have created a whole magazine to tell you all about them! From rescuing patients in a tractor, to raising thousands to help victims, our 'Trust Talk' newsletter brings you just a snippet of the excellent work that has been carried out over the last few weeks.
https://www.cumbriapartnership.nhs.uk/assets/uploads/additional-documents/TRUST_TALK_FLOOD_EDITION.pdf