Melbourne lockdown: Knox Private Hospital nurses express gratitude at helping tower residents
Nurses from a private hospital in Melbourne’s east have revealed what working with residents inside Melbourne’s nine towers during the harsh five-day lockdown was like. And it may be different to what you think.
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Nurses at the frontline have taken to social media to share their gratitude and reveal what it was like working with the people living in Melbourne’s locked down towers.
Knox Private Hospital nurses Lisa Peters and Fonibear Williams were part of the team sent out to conduct coronavirus testing on residents of the nine government-owned apartment blocks which were locked down on July 4.
Last night the State Government relaxed its hard lockdown on residents in eight of the nine public housing blocks in North Melbourne and Flemington.
A team of workers including nurses, paramedics, police and firefighters have been working at the towers helping test, feed and distribute food and essentials items to the 3000-odd residents.
Ms Peters said she wrote the post to dispel the misconceptions about the tower situation – and it’s been shared 9500 times.
“Over the last few days, our amazing team from Knox attended the towers in Flemington and North Melbourne,” she said.
“The last few days have been a plethora of emotions and a humbling experience.”
Ms Peters said the media had portrayed the situation as being “full of hostility, drug and alcohol concerns”, and a “frightening place to go”.
“When I first arrived and found the massive police presence and strict lock down, my heart was in my mouth,” she said.
Teams of two nurses decked out in their personal protective gear were grouped together and given their own trolley and accompanied by police officers as they started their rounds.
“We were given a list of residents on each floor and started at the first apartment and continued until the last had been visited on each floor,” Ms Peters said.
“The tests were purely voluntary, yet not one resident said no.
“They were incredibly thankful, respectful and grateful for us being there.”
She said at every apartment nurses asked the resident if they were okay, if they had enough food, or needed any medications, or if there was anything they could do to help.
“There were some very simple requests, lactose free milk, an onion and tomato, dish-washing detergent, sanitary pads and toothpaste,” Ms Peters sad.
“We could see the bags and boxes of food delivered to them in the foyers, under tents outside, outside their doorways, inside their rooms.
“One man told us they had never had this much meat before, with the biggest smile on his face.”
She said residents were grateful for being tested and so worried for theirs and their family’s health.
“They proudly showed their negative results on the texts on their phones and wanted to be tested again as that was a week ago,” Ms Peters said.
“Most were worried about not being able to go to work and support their families or lose their jobs.
“For many there were single parents because the spouse had been locked out, some had nieces, nephews, cousins that had been locked in.”
She said there was so much thanks and gratitude and nurses were invited into people’s homes.
“I have so many wonderful memories of the last few days, none were bad, they were all positive,” Ms Peters said.
“The wheels are in motion to support these people, I am so honoured to be a nurse and have each of your backs, as you have mine.”
In Ms Williams post she said there was a veritable army of wonderful support people working tirelessly to make sure these people were receiving everything they needed physically and emotionally.
“Each of these ‘little boxes’ in the locked down Melbourne towers holds a story,” Ms Williams said.
“Someone who matters. We are listening and we care.”
“In the past two days I have had the privilege of being one of a team of nurses from Knox Private Hospital providing COVID swabbing for the residents of the Towers.
“This pandemic brings out the best in some and the worst in others. These past two days I’ve been lucky to see countless examples of the best.”
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