Supermarket confrontations, panicked flatmates: MIQ staff face huge stigma
12 Jan, 2021 08:10 PM
6 minutes to read
Staff at the Waipuna Hotel, Auckland. From left: nurses John and Vicki; coordinator Tash, MIQ facility manager Lieutenant Sam Wilson, security manager Stuart, hotel manager Shakira. Photo / Supplied
Staff at the Waipuna Hotel, Auckland. From left: nurses John and Vicki; coordinator Tash, MIQ facility manager Lieutenant Sam Wilson, security manager Stuart, hotel manager Shakira. Photo / Supplied
RNZ
By Karoline Tuckey of RNZ
Managers at managed isolation facilities say their workers are encountering unfair stigma in the community, and the pressure has been so bad that some have quit because of it.
Managers at managed isolation facilities say their workers are encountering unfair stigma in the community, and the pressure has been so bad that some have quit because of it.
Nurse Kerry Winchester has had more than one staff member quit over the barriers they face once people know where they work.
Photo: Supplied.
Christchurch charge nurse Kerry Winchester said she has been shocked by the way some people have treated her staff when they realised where they work.
Her nurses had been confronted in supermarkets, barred from going to their children s school meetings or onto school grounds to pick children up, and some have had difficulty getting routine doctor or dentist appointments.
Steve Braunias: The 20 best things of Auckland life
12 minutes to read
Steve Braunias compiles his annual list of the 20 best things of Auckland life.
1. Best community testing centre There were many, many times in 2020 when you could have cut the tension with one of those long swab things used to test for Covid-19 in the upper and hitherto unexplored reaches of the human nose. Community testing centres – pop-ups, surgeries, weird medical units set up in godforsaken carparks – became the place to be seen this year. Just over 1,312,000 New Zealanders lined up for tests. They were attended to by the best health professionals in the world. Purely in terms of location, and the splendours of nature, the best testing centre was the pop-up opposite Western Springs Park on Great North Rd. A little turn-off led to a carpark with a view of the swans and geese at Western Park to the north, and the graceful, swaying pine trees at Chamberlain Park to the south; and the