Our Amazing People – Astbury Manor Care Home Team
Contingency planning for fire and building service issues is essential for safety and Avery has excellent training and policies in place in all our care homes. In October last year, this became extremely useful for Astbury Manor in Bracknell, when a hot water pipe in the ceiling of a first-floor bathroom sprung a rapid water leak.
Home Manager Juliet Gallop was on annual leave on this particular Saturday when she received a call from her Deputy Manager Liz Donaldson, advising her that there was a severe leak on the first floor of the home. By the time she received the call, Home Administrator Ann had already called the Fire Brigade, organised for residents to be moved to the ground floor and proactively requested assistance from staff not on duty that day. Liz had sent staff out to purchase more wet vacuum cleaners and researched potential spare rooms at nearby Avery sister homes.
Home Manager Juliet immediately sprang into action, drove back to the home and by the time she arrived, she was relieved to find that Mark the Maintenance Person had located a burst pipe and isolated the leak. There was, however, considerable water on the first floor so, working with her team, Juliet put a further plan of action together.
They say that ‘many hands make light work’ and this was truly the case with 15 off-shift staff members – some living over 30 miles away – arriving to help. Even some of the residents’ families volunteered and their Regional Manager Suzanne Baldwin arrived to join the workforce. With all-hands-on-deck and a full day of vacuuming, mopping and cleaning, the hard-working team had removed the water while residents were kept happily entertained out of harm’s way. Said Liz “The team spirit was amazing, even our chefs worked super hard, making extra platters of sandwiches and refreshments for everyone while cooking the three-course lunch for residents.
Juliet commented “This was a highly unusual situation and everyone worked extremely hard; by the Monday morning you would never have known there had been a problem. She added, “without the fast actions of the team, the situation would have been much worse – I am so very proud of them”.
Chief Operating Officer Sharon Winfield was so impressed, she nominated them for this article. She commented, “The amazing team at Astbury Manor were incredibly calm, supportive and focused, demonstrating excellent initiative, leadership and teamwork, they deserve to be recognised”.
Article by Helen Bates, Marketing Executive, for Welcome Home Issue 8.
