Central Hawke's Bay nurse circulates petition for special service medal

Andrew Cameron was presented the Florence Nightingale Medal by the Governor-General Sir Jerry Mateparae at Government House, Wellington in 2011.

While the world grapples with the invisible Covid-19 virus, those on the frontline in New Zealand may soon be rewarded with a visible token of their sacrifice.

Central Hawke's Bay resident and Red Cross nurse Andrew Cameron is circulating a petition to award frontline health professionals the New Zealand Special Service Medal
for their work during the coronavirus pandemic.

Cameron is no stranger to working on the frontline himself, having spent 15 of his 44-year nursing career in the war zones of Iraq, South Sudan and Afghanistan. He is also
the recipient of the Florence Nightingale Medal, the Iraq Medal, the Order of Australia
Medal and the Afghanistan Medal. He says the idea of the petition came from colleague
and pilot Alan Ward from Whangārei, whose successful petition in 2017 for the issuance
of a New Zealand Humanitarian Overseas Service Medal was presented to and accepted by
the New Zealand Parliament.

Cameron believes our frontline health professionals are particularly deserving of the Special Service Medal he is proposing.

"We are in a war against this deadly virus and the people most at risk of contracting the
virus are health professionals such as nurses and doctors in intensive care units caring for
known cases, people reaching into the mouths of the public taking nasopharyngeal swabs
at drive-through clinics, triage nurses in emergency departments sorting the serious
presentations from the less serious, and the laboratory workers dealing with live virus."

He says many of these kinds of clinicians overseas have contracted the virus and more
than a few have died in the line of duty.

"Fortunately this has not occurred in New Zealand, however, the danger of such an outcome is ever-present. It is great that we are often thanked by members of the public
for selfless work, but in years to come when Covid-19 has passed into obscurity it would
be fitting for frontline health workers to have a tangible memento of these times, just as a
soldier does for the years subsequent to his or her return from battle."

Having himself recently returned from deployment in Afghanistan, Cameron is well aware
of the importance of his colleagues.

"The average Joe and Flo nurse/doctor seem to have been neglected here, hence my
attempt to address this. This is about people such as my colleagues Vanessa, Judy, Louise
and Sandra at the CHB Health Centre who are dealing with the pandemic, risking their lives and livelihoods - and deserve something to pin on their blazer and proudly wear at a
future Anzac Day dawn service."

The New Zealand Special Service Medal has been issued on three previous occasions - following nuclear testing in the Pacific, for personnel dealing with the aftermath of the Mt
Erebus aviation disaster and for aid workers who went to assist following the Asian
tsunami.

"Here we find ourselves in the worst pandemic since the Spanish Influenza catastrophe a
century ago, so the time has come for a fourth to be warranted."

Cameron says the UK Government issued the Ebola Medal for their medical and nursing
nationals who ventured to West Africa in 2014 and put their lives on the line to deal with
that tragedy.

"The Canadians, British and Americans also have a range of medallic recognition for such
special situations."

Cameron's petition is circulating via social media and he believes will be presented to
Parliament by MP Alistair Scott and then to the Prime Minister who will have to
make a decision.

"If affirmative, approval is sought from the Queen for royal assent. If given, the New
Zealand Herald of Arms Extraordinary, currently Philip O'Shea, designs the medal and
chooses a colour for the ribbon."

With a little more than two weeks until the Friday, June 5 deadline, Cameron says that date could be extended if required.

"Let's see how much support there is closer to the deadline, but it's not a problem to
extend it."

The petition is available for anybody to sign at:
https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/petitions/document/PET_97678/petition-of-andrew-cameron-issue-a-covid-19-new-zealand and anyone can sign it.