Soldiers, Civil Defence and volunteers keep county moving

The Army, Meath Civil Defence, Meath River Rescue and the HSE have put in a concerted effort over the past week to keep essential services moving despite the treacherous road conditions around the county. HSE staff in community services, hospitals and ambulance stations are working around the clock to ensure service delivery continues during the cold spell and essential services are being prioritised. David Gaskin, HSE Local Health Manager for Meath, has paid tribute to the huge efforts being made by HSE staff. He said many staff members are carrying out duties above and beyond their normal work to keep in touch with clients, make arrangements with families, pharmacies and GPs and, where needed, arrange food and fuel. There have been numerous examples during this cold spell of HSE personnel making arrangements to ensure contact is maintained with clients, he said. He added: “Our staff are making arrangements to swap shifts, do longer shifts or stay away from home to ensure they can get to work. I would also like to commend the voluntary organisations like Meals-on-Wheels and others who are working closely with the HSE. “Health services in Meath are also working in close co-operation with local authorities, Garda Siochana, the Army and the Civil Defence. This close working relationship will continue throughout the cold spell.†Defence Forces personnel have been transporting public health nurses and registered general nurses in the Laytown, Duleek and Slane areas since early last week, while the Civil Defence has been transporting nurses around the Dunshaughlin area to Navan, Wilkinstown, parts of Ratoath, Ashbourne and also Slane. The nurses in some areas have been working in the nearest health centre to them if unable to access the centre at which they are based. All nurses in urbanised areas are walking to their calls where safe to do so. Cora Magee, assistant director of public health nursing, based in Dunshaughlin, has paid tribute to the nurses. She said: “It is a great team effort, the nurses are putting in extra hours and time to ensure that they keep in touch with our clients.†Army personnel have been working around the county throughout the week helping to clear roads and footpaths and assisting in transport of health professionals. Yesterday (Tuesday) there were soldiers working in Kells, Bettystown and Laytown. On previous days, they were assisting snow clearing operation in Navan, Dunboyne and Kilmessan, among other towns. In each location there were two army vehicles and 20 troops breaking ice and snow and clearing footpaths. They were also transporting palliative care nurses to homes around the county and assisting medical and nursing staff, who commute from the county to ICU units and other essential services in Dublin, to get to work. Meath River Rescue has been assisting Navan Meals-on-Wheels to deliver hot meals to the elderly around the area since the cold snap began. Over the past week, over 150 Meath Civil Defence volunteers have beem assisting the public in a variety of ways. Meath County Council's Civil Defence Officer, Michael Fitzsimons, explained that they were manning an emergency call centre and dealing with requests for assistance. “We have been transporting public health nurses on essential calls in areas that are inaccessible and we have assisted Meals-on-Wheels in a number of areas around the county,†he said. He said Civil Defence has eight training centres around the county and have been assisting pharmacies to get essential medicines delivered and getting nursing staff to hospital. They have been assisting the ambulance services by getting to the scene in four-wheel-drives and relaying essential information to the ambulacnes which are taking longer to get to calls because of road conditions. They assisted their council colleagues in Slane on Saturday, clearing footpaths and refilled tanks for a group of houses in Oristown where water supplies had dropped. “We have been very busy. Most days, we have been dealing with about 35 to 40 calls a day,†Mr Fitzsimons said. Yesterday (Tuesday) they had nine fou- wheel-drive vehicles out around the county assisting public health nurses and Meals-on-Wheels.