The 18-deck ship carried 1,040 crew from 50 different countries, and over 1,000 guests.

The ship was linked to over 900 cases of COVID-19 and 28 deaths in Australia, according to the report released as a result of the special commission of inquiry into the Ruby Princess last April.

"The Ruby Princess was something that shifted the focus across all of Australia," said Dr Jones.

"The interesting thing was how quickly the focus went from being concerned about getting sick from COVID...to being worried about how we could come together and help those on board.

"The Ruby Princess didn't really worry us a great deal, as the hospital was on standby for COVID. But the patients who had been on the Ruby Princess and other ships like it, were very concerned about the staff on board."

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Dr Jones said the changes the hospital had to make a year ago were "drastic".

"I was Acting Director of Medical Services for the hospital at the time, and we had been working extremely hard to ready the hospital for a projected significant increase in patients with COVID," he said.

"We were meeting every day, and each of the department heads had roles to play in getting the hospital ready. We reduced the number of theatres from five to two, and one of those theatres was the COVID theatre.

"We were doing predominantly emergencies only at that point in time. We had been very careful with disconnecting the surgical ward with the maternity ward because the air conditioning was linked and we had to change that as the virus is airborne."

In praising his staff for their "spectacular" ability to adapt, Dr Jones explained that many of his nursing staff had to be trained in intensive care, and ended up staying in their new roles as they ended up liking them better.

"The people who took the brunt of most of this were the nursing staff, predominantly in theatre in casualty and emergency," he said.

"Their ability to adapt to the situation of patients coming off cruise ships and other travellers was pretty spectacular. They were working very hard, and there were a lot of people doing what they wouldn't normally be doing."

Although COVID-19 cases are under control and vaccines have started to roll out, when Dr Jones compared this Easter weekend to last year's, he said this year's was considerably busier for the hospital.

"Easter this year was huge for the area because, due to the fact travel is restricted to basically just Australia," he said.

"One of my nursing staff in theatre was travelling from Kiama to Nowra, and it took her two hours to get to work. That is really exhausting.

"The number of people in casualty now is enormous. We're lacking beds, we're still reduced in a number of theatres, and we haven't got the staff back from those times yet at all.

"All over NSW we're struggling to get nursing staff within hospitals, and I think that's an effect of the fires, and of COVID, and just the general exhaustion of the population that has serviced the hospitals because they've worked bloody hard."

Having his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday, Dr Jones said his hopes for a new normal are high, and that Shoalhaven residents were keen to return to going on cruise holidays.

"A lot of people in this region love cruises," he said.

"I still have patients telling me every day of how many cruises they've booked for next year."

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