Heavy rains across the Midlands and the north of England on Thursday night have affected surgeries and GPs travelling to patients, disrupting consultations and leaving some areas with limited services.
One GP working in Derbyshire, one of the worst affected areas, said flooding had made it ‘near impossible’ to travel across the county and visit patients, with many roads un-navigable.
Meanwhile, a doctor in Lincolnshire was transported to work in the mouth of a compact tractor after his surgery was surrounded by water.
Testing conditions
The small town of Matlock, Derbyshire, has been one of the worst affected areas after the river Derwent - which runs through the centre of the town - burst its banks at midday on Friday morning.
Treasurer of Derby and Derbyshire LMC, Dr Peter Holden, told GPonline that flooding had made it challenging to deliver out-of-hours services, but revealed his surgery had managed to avoid serious damage.
‘It was difficult over the weekend for the out-of-hours service as it was near impossible to cross the Derwent, thus slicing most of the county in half. It was quite a big detour to get to Buxton to do my shift on Saturday.
‘The waters came to within 50 metres of the surgery, but we were not in danger of inundation because we are about 5 metres above the flooding. one of the two chemists was [affected] and a gas leak has also brought havoc.’
Flood water
A woman was found dead in Matlock last week after she was swept away by the flood water. Prime minister Boris Johnson was spotted on Friday mornig helping out with clean-up operations in the town.
A Lincolnshire GP with the help of a local farmer battled to resume normal service as he was ferried across the water to his surgery.
Flying doctor.... even during the chaos of everything, we still manage to get the doctor to the surgery on time #floods #Lincolnshire #flooding #gooddeed pic.twitter.com/zomZdr3FNG
— Alice Warwick (@Warwick96) November 8, 2019
