British Red Cross emergency teams respond as snow sweeps UK

6 January 2010

As heavy snow continues to fall, British Red Cross emergency teams have mounted a huge response across the country, supporting ambulance services in Greater Manchester, Scotland, Worcester, Shropshire and Staffordshire.

A team of 30 British Red Cross staff and volunteers have been using specially equipped 4x4 vehicles to reach patients in Northern Scotland, where conditions have been particularly difficult in rural areas.

Ian Rideout, Red Cross Operations Director for the North of Scotland, said: "The conditions are unprecedented, there's been no let up in the weather and some back roads are all but impassable.

On one occasion we had to drive across a field to reach a patient whose home was so cut off, we'd considered sledging him out. We've also had to dig through four feet of snow to release one of our carers and their client after they were trapped by an avalanche that fell from the roof."

In Glasgow, the Red Cross medical loan service was inundated with requests for wheelchairs for people who had fallen and broken hips, legs and ankles on the snow and ice. More than four times as many wheelchairs as normal were given out.

Elsewhere in the UK, volunteers are on standby as the bad weather sweeps through the Midlands and into the South East.

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