from the Northern Echo
4x4 fans scramble to help patients
10:28am Friday 10th December 2010
A LITTLE-KNOWN group of 4x4 enthusiasts have provided invaluable assistance to the NHS in the last few weeks.
In places where the NHS has struggled to get through the snow to patients, Land Rovers, Toyotas, Mitsubishis and Suzukis driven by members of 4x4 Response have come to the rescue.
From Northumberland to the North York Moors, members of the North-East and Yorkshire and Lincolnshire branches of 4x4 Response have been scrambled to help the Health Service.
From ferrying district nurses and doctors to see patients in isolated rural areas to ensuring key NHS staff get to work, the two branches have put in hundreds of hours unpaid work.
The volunteer drivers, who only claim expenses and fuel costs range from a headteacher to a bank clerk and from a lorry driver to the retired.
Dave White, originally from Redworth, near Darlington and now living in Hull, who was manning the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire branch helpline yesterday, said there has been huge demand from the NHS in the past few weeks.
“The last really busy period we had was in January, but the past couple of weeks have been three times as busy,” he said.
The Yorkshire and Lincolnshire branch has about 150 members with their own vehicles, but Mr White said many more are needed to meet the demand for 4x4 transport.
“We could do with twice as many drivers just to fulfil what we are currently doing.
The North York Moors is an area where we particularly need more drivers. We have struggled to do what we needed to do in Whitby,” he added.
One of the more unusual vehicles pressed into service in Whitby was a flat-fronted 101 Forward Control Land Rover, a former military ambulance.
Diane Dickinson, co-ordinator for the North-East branch of 4x4 Response, said: “We have never stopped since the heavy snow started. It has been unbelievable.”
Until recently most of the group’s work has been in the north of the region, but recently members of the 4x4 North-East branch have been deployed in the Tees Valley area to provide transport for district nurses.
“Basically, the lads love playing in the snow,” she said.
HELPING OUT: Dr Claire McGill waits to set off on a call with 4X4 Response North-East volunteer Shaun Reed, from Burnopfield