News

Army of nurses help thousands at Glastonbury

More than a hundred nurses were on site at Glastonbury this weekend to ensure the good health of revellers, young and old.

This year's team of nurse volunteers at Glastonbury dealt with with an increase in the number patients seeking treatment.


Crowds enjoying Glastonbury festival. Picture: Alamy

More than a hundred nurses were on site at Glastonbury this weekend to ensure the good health of revellers, young and old.

They treated a range of injuries as well as pre-existing conditions.

'Obviously we have to deal with the side effects of drugs and excess alcohol, but people think that's all we do,' said Linda Bailey, one of Festival Medical Services' (FMS) nurse co-ordinators.

'Because it was sunny this year we didn't see any trench foot. But a lot of people were suffering with the heat and because it was dusty we had eye injuries.'

A team of more than a hundred volunteer nurses dealt with a variety of conditions, including long-term chronic conditions like asthma, and sickness brought on by the weather.

As well as general nurses, mental health teams were on standby.

'They looked after people who might have had existing conditions, and sometimes Glastonbury can be overwhelming so they were there to help,' said Ms Bailey.

And she added: 'Planning goes on all year, so as soon as everybody is back, we will look at lessons learned and what we can do better next time around.'

Hospital standard cover

Health teams have been on site for weeks, providing hospital standard cover for all of the workers who help put together the stages.

The health facilities include a large medical centre, a small medical centre, two minor injury units, and mobile and stationary first aid points.

Nurses were asked to complete two eight-hour shifts in return for a festival ticket.

A spokesperson for FMS said: 'Festival Medical Services have seen 3,705 patients this year compared with 3,131 last year. The increase is due to the hot weather from early in the festival. There have been 65 transfers to hospital compared with 45 last year, but they were overwhelmingly for non-festival related conditions.

'In fact, we saw fewer of those type this year – for example, only three fractured ankles.'

There were no reported deaths. 


In other news

Jobs