Community nurse pressed farmer husband’s tractor into service to reach patients in blizzard conditions

Children’s community nurse Charlotte Perry-Warnes did not let heavy snow stop her making home visits

A determined community nurse pressed her husband’s tractor into service to get through heavy snow and reach her young patients.

Charlotte Perry-Warnes, a children’s community nurse at Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust, battled tretcherous road conditions to keep her appointments last week.

Travelling to patients in adverse weather conditions

‘I live in north Norfolk, which seemed to be one of most hard-hit places. It was very windy with lots of snow still falling, so quite blizzardy conditions,’ she said.

‘One road I went down was shut completely and there was a car buried among the snow. All you could see was its roof.’

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Ms Perry-Warnes can drive a tractor but on this occasion, her farmer husband Jamie offered to take the wheel.

‘Staff continue to step up in extraordinary ways’

Josie Spencer, chief executive, Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust

‘My husband said he’d drive because the conditions were so bad,’ she said.

Families’ relief at nurse’s visit, in spite of difficult road conditions

The JCB Fastrac is normally used to transport pigs in a trailer.

It was the first time Ms Perry-Warnes had used a tractor to do her rounds and her patients were surprised and delighted to see her.

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‘They were all really shocked. One was a two-year-old whose first word was tractor, so she loved it. She was too unwell to come outside but looked out of the window,’ she said.

‘One of the mums cried because she thought she was going to have to try and get to the hospital.’

Dealing with difficult travel conditions as well as the COVID-19 pandemic

Trust chief executive Josie Spencer said Ms Perry-Warnes was an example of how staff ‘continue to step up in extraordinary ways’ during the COVID-19 crisis.

‘We are incredibly proud of Charlotte, who faced the unprecedented challenge of snow during a pandemic with an innovative way to reach her patients,’ she said.

• RELATED: What will the ‘new normal’ look like for children’s services?

RCN England director Mike Adams said he wanted to thank ‘everyone in the nursing family who has not let bad weather get between them and their patients’.

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