DISTRICT nurses have been praised for their dedication to duty during the recent arctic weather.

In one case a nurse did six home visits on foot in the snow, which took her seven hours.

Staff also stayed overnight at Urgent Care Centres across County Durham to ensure they stayed open.

Bosses at NHS County Durham and Darlington Community Health Services said they are impressed with the way their staff pulled together to continue to provide healthcare during the adverse weather conditions.

Martin Armitage, on-call manager during this period, described how the snow started coming down on Saturday night before Christmas.

"We had more than 20 calls between 6pm and 1.45am," he said. "The response of our staff was universally fantastic.

"We had staff doing extra shifts to cover for those who couldn't make it in to work because of the snow.

"Administration staff came into work to cover phones. District nurses in Easington were doing visits on foot to ensure that patients were safe.

"All staff worked so hard to keep things going. As on call manager before Christmas, it was made easier for me by staff ringing with ideas for solutions to problems as they were arising, and it was really just a case of asking me to ok it.

"It is absolutely fantastic that our staff have responded in such a dedicated and professional manner throughout the bad spell of weather."