New Year Honour: The Hawke’s Bay woman who helped steer the country through a pandemic

Dr Caroline McElnay worked for 20 years in various public health roles in Hawke’s Bay before she led a ministry team that provided pandemic advice to the Government. Photo / Paul Taylor

Dr Caroline McElnay never expected that her “exciting and scary” work as one of the key figures steering the country through the pandemic would be recognised with her placement on the New Year Honours list.

Dr McElnay has been named a companion of the Queen’s Service Order for services to public health.

“I was overjoyed, honoured and flattered to receive this honour,” she said.

She served as Director of Public Health with the Ministry of Health (MoH) from 2017 until her resignation in 2022, and most New Zealanders would recognise her from television appearances throughout lockdowns, speaking alongside the Prime Minister and Dr Ashley Bloomfield, among others.

She worked for 20 years in various public health roles in Hawke’s Bay before she led a team that provided advice from the Ministry of Health to the Government throughout the pandemic about the country’s response to Covid.

“When the Director of Public Health job in Wellington came up, it was a good time in my life and in my family’s life for me to take a job in Wellington.”

She said it was “exciting and scary” to work in the role through the pandemic.

She said a pandemic had always been predicted in the public health sphere, but no one expected it to happen on their watch.

“It could always happen and there was an awareness of that part when I took the job, but there was also the sense of, ‘Why is this happening now? Why is this happening to me?’ You don’t spend a lot of time thinking about that though, because this is something in public health that we have been trained for.”

She finished in the role in April this year and recently returned from a long overseas trip with her husband they took to rest and recover.