Flood-affected care home resident helped to hospital

A man whose wife was taken to hospital from a care home that was surrounded by floodwater said he was "eternally grateful" to the emergency service workers who helped her get there.

Francis Hillier's wife Janice lives at Casterbridge Lodge in Winterbourne Steepleton, where staff arrived on Wednesday to find it "completely encircled by water, with flooding stretching up the track leading to the nearby farm", according to the home.

The following day, the home worked with the hospital renal unit and Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service (DWFRS), to get Janice to her dialysis appointment at Dorset County Hospital.

While the floodwater has been kept out of the building, Francis said his wife was now at the home's sister facility in Cerne Abbas, while work to clear the surrounding water continued.

Francis, who lives in Preston, near Weymouth, said no-one could use the usual access to the care home "because it was about four or five feet deep at one stage".

He added: "[Janice] is in a wheelchair and there was absolutely no access for wheelchairs or ordinary human beings because the carers themselves had to go through a hedge and then walk up a higher terrain to get into the residential home."

He said he had been "very concerned" about his wife missing her dialysis appointment but said they had received "wonderful help".

"The fire station people were very good and the police, I think, were there to help as well, so I'm eternally grateful and I think my wife was as well," said Francis.

Due to the floodwater clearing work at Casterbridge Lodge, he said Janice had been moved to a sister home at Cerne Abbas and that she was "getting her treatment as she normally would".

Casterbridge Lodge said it had to source a pump from Bristol when nearby drainage companies had no equipment available due to the widespread flooding across the region in the aftermath of Storm Chandra.

In a statement, it said emergency services, including DWFRS, Dorset Council, Wessex Water and the Environment Agency were "immediately contacted" when staff arrived to find the building surrounded by water.

It read: "We were advised that, as the water had not entered the building and residents were safe with full access to electricity, heating, food and water, the situation did not meet the criteria for emergency assistance at that time.

"By Thursday morning, the water levels had reduced slightly but access to the main entrances of the building remained unsafe.

"One of our residents was due to attend a dialysis appointment, so we contacted the hospital's renal department to inform them we could not safely transfer her to the transport vehicle."

Dorset Council said it has been liaising with Casterbridge Lodge to monitor the welfare of residents and staff.

"Today, all residents and staff were said to be in a good spirits," a council spokesperson said on Friday.

"The Environment Agency were on site this morning and confirmed that the pump is working well and there are no imminent concerns."

Casterbridge Lodge said the safety and wellbeing of its residents "remain our absolute priority".

The BBC has contacted the Environment Agency and DWFRS for comment.

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