(Time to read: 4 minutes)

By Nicola Davies

I moved to Cornwall three years ago to start a new job in a new practice – the sun, the sea, the walks on the beach with the dog. I had it all planned… so what the flip-floppin’ ‘eck happened last week when we had three inches of snow?!  I did NOT move to Cornwall for snow!

The disruption to our week (because it didn’t only affect me obviously) was enormous. It all kicked off on Wednesday when a day ahead of schedule (thanks BBC!), the white flakey stuff fell from the sky… not just a bit… actually quite a lot… and at 11am, it was decided that I should leave the building – not because I am Chief Cook and Bottlewasher I hasten to add, but because I live the furthest away from the surgery.  I drove home at a snail’s pace through a blizzard and took 1½ hours to do 13 miles.  So far, so irritating… not least because I had to abandon my car a mile away from home and walk the rest of the way.  When I say walk, I actually mean fall with (limited) grace several times – boots with no tread may look good, but they ain’t for walking!

At home, sore and cold, I logged into my nhs.net email and just let everyone know that (a) I was safe and (b) phone/email me if you’ve got problems, you know because we’re all so dedicated. I couldn’t log into the clinical system though as it wouldn’t work, snow had obviously got into the cabling…*sigh*.

The first problem reared its ugly head just after 1pm when the courier collecting the pathology samples was a no-show.  I phoned the courier service to be told that a message had gone out to surgeries that the couriers had been recalled to base – no point risking life and limb for a few blood/pee samples.  I told the wee one on the phone that actually no message had been received and she was very sorry but in fact said message arrived at 4.30 pm by email, which was helpful (not). Cue calls to each surgery site to put samples in the fridge with the optimistic comment “let’s see what tomorrow brings”…

Thursday arrived and with it more snow – by 7.30am, all staff had been contacted and stationed at suitable sites. I am incredibly lucky that I have at least two members of staff who live within walking distance of each surgery site – so at least the phones could be manned if nothing else.  I had a doctor with a 4×4, what more could I possibly need?  Appointments were being cancelled thick and fast; sensible, given the topography of each village, and as I fell over four times on a level surface, Lord only knows what our patients could do to themselves on a hill!

The girls were brilliant and coped admirably. We stayed in regular contact, GPs messaging me, dispensary phoning with queries as they rose… and patients were by and large, very understanding and more than happy to relax at home by the fire, instead of attempting to get out.

Friday saw normal service resumed – for the most part.  We’d started to have a bit of a melt with some rain early morning which saw the major roads opened again.  Unfortunately, this did not mean that our drug deliveries were going to be operational, nor did we see a courier from the hospital.

Calls to our wholesalers were met with dismay – they couldn’t track drugs ordered on the Wednesday or Thursday – they weren’t sure how many drivers had managed to get in, and of course, we were asked not to duplicate any order just in case we got more than we bargained for.

By this time though, the natives were getting restless – well, a small number.  Whilst it wasn’t their fault that the drug delivery didn’t get through, of course, it wasn’t mine either.  I am responsible for a great many things in my miserable existence, but the falling of snow is not one of them. I have control over many facets of my organisation, but I cannot open the A30 or the A38 to allow the drug vans access to Cornwall. I know, call myself a Practice Manager? Bloomin’ useless aren’t I?!

Now while I’m bemoaning the fact that some people have little understanding or acceptance of the fact that the snow massively impacted on the availability, or not, of their small but important packet of medication, I ought to have some patience myself – there are still NO bananas at my local supermarket! I may have to write to my MP…

By Nicola Davies

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