Frontline health workers thank Kiwis for obeying lockdown, averting 'medical apocalypse'

Doctors, nurses, specialists, administrators, specialist health teams and paramedics are among those who’ve sent video messages.

Frontline medical staff from around the country are saying a heartfelt ‘thank you’ to all New Zealanders who’ve followed the rules during the nationwide Level 3 and 4 lockdowns.

Doctors, nurses, specialists, administrators, specialist health teams and paramedics are among dozens of workers who’ve sent video messages to 1 NEWS as part of a collective thank you.

What started with an idea from two Auckland anaesthetists turned into a large-scale appeal for thank-you message from frontline hospital workers.

Dr Marty Minehan says our medical fraternity was alarmed by events overseas as Covid-19 spread across the world.

As the devastating virus took hold in Europe and the United Kingdom, medical teams here worked hard to put plans in place to minimise the impact. But Dr Minehan credits New Zealanders staying home as playing a huge part in containing the virus here and ensuring intensive care units were not swamped with huge numbers of infected patients.

“This has averted a medical apocalypse that we have seen in overseas countries,” Dr Minehan says.

Covid-19 has so far claimed the lives of more than 1000 health workers in 64 countries.

Dr Nathan Kershaw, an anaesthetist from Canterbury, told 1 NEWS earlier this month how fearful frontline workers were of the potential impact of the virus arriving here.

“We were terrified,” Dr Kershaw says. “It felt like war was coming and no-one was listening to us.”

But it seems Kiwis were and frontline workers are acknowledging that.

There messages are funny, colourful, musical and heartfelt.

And they come with another underlying message – "Keep going and keep following the rules in Level 2.”

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