ALL of us encountered challenges during last week's island-wide power outage ? but the situation held particular difficulties for the staff and residents of nursing homes.

One such home, Pleasantville in Paget, was able to find comfort for its elderly residents, thanks to the positive answer to its call for assistance from its friendly neighbour, the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital (KEMH).

Julia Dears, a registered nurse at Pleasantville, arrived at work at 8 a.m. last Thursday to find no power, the toilets not flushing and the prospect of 11 elderly residents becoming increasingly uncomfortable in the absence of air conditioning on a sweltering day.

At 4 p.m., as it became clear that the electricity supply was not going to be restored that day, Ms Dears thought it was time to take action.

"I didn't want the night shift to come in at midnight and have to deal with those conditions," Ms Dears said. "We had a full house, 11 residents, some of whom are disabled.

"I called Kathy Lewis (KEMH's director of clinical programmes) to ask if the hospital could help. She said she'd call back in half an hour and she did. There was no hesitation, they just said, 'Yes, bring them here'."

Granville Russell, programme manager of KEMH's continuing care programme, had said he could find room for the Pleasantville residents. The home provided its staff to look after them and brought food for them.

Sufficient beds and reclining chairs were found to allow the seniors some comfort.

"We had one lady who was bed-bound and we used an ambulance to take her over and the rest came in private cars," Ms Dears said. "We're not far from the hospital, but these people are in their 90s and not used to being moved and they were very disoriented.

"Everyone at the hospital was wonderful. We're very grateful that the facility was there for us and had air conditioning and flushing toilets."

Mr. Russell said: "When we got the call, we could not say no. They couldn't stay out there in that heat."

The continuing care unit, which looks after elderly patients, took on some rather younger ones as well last Thursday and Friday.

With summer camps cancelled, the unit offered to look after children of hospital staff who would not have been able to come to work without the impromptu baby-sitting service.

The 14 attending children, aged between 19 months and 17 years, reportedly had a lot of fun, as did the staff supervising them.

Continuing care team member Heather Oars said: "They liked our DVD player and watched a lot of movies.

"We usually work with older people so it was interesting to deal with younger personalities."

Other staff members on duty were Ameer Shakir and Merleen Pringle.

Mr. Russell said: "The staff need to be commended for the way they handled the situation."