The Health Minister is assuring health workers the government is doing what it can to prepare for a rise in Covid-19 patients in hospitals.
An emergency nurse and NZ Nurses Organisation delegate in Auckland says her already stressed colleagues fear hospitals are not ready for a tsunami of cases.
Middlemore Hospital is predicting 20 cases a day through its emergency department by next month.
Little told Morning Report he understands the pressure and anxiety staff are feeling.
"We're at that point now where things are starting to change, people are concerned about that rise in number of cases.
"The whole way that this government has managed the response to Covid, right back to last year, one of the critical issues we've had in our mind is the impact on the health system, and making sure that the decisions we take in what we do minimizes that impact so that we don't see overwhelmed hospitals."
Little said more health workers will arrive from overseas in about a month and more than 120 nurses have been brought to Auckland from other parts of the country since the start of this outbreak.
He said the health system is prepared for a jump.
"The surge capacity is available. We've trained up to nearly 1400 extra nurses to be able to work in an ICU environment under supervision.
"If you have a looked at the numbers now, roughly 760 odd cases. We have 37 people in hospital and at the moment two of those in ICU. So, the need to draw on that surge capacity is not required just at the moment.
But I get the daily report on what is happening in the hospitals, we get the daily report on Covid cases and how many are hospitalised, and we are keeping a very close eye."
