Dr Elizabeth Grist's father, Leon Sokulsky, is the motivation behind her massive drive that has already donated two truckloads of desperately needed medical supplies to Ukraine.

Mr Sokulsky was taken from Ukraine on a cattle truck when he was just 14-years-old by the German army in World War II and worked as a slave labourer until the end of the war.

Dr Grist, who is executive director of clinical services, nursing and midwifery at Hunter New England Health, said her father was very proud to be both Australian and Ukrainian.

"He loved Australia, and he always loved his homeland," she said.

"He instilled the great culture of the Ukrainian spirit that we're seeing now in all of us."

The values he instilled were resilience, kindness, compassion, being grateful for what you have and helping others whenever you can.

Dr Grist is a part of the International Coordination of Medical Aid for Ukraine organisation, and she had help from Dr Adam Walczak, deputy director of the innovation precinct at HNE Health who also has Ukrainian heritage.

After sending a call out to her HNE Health colleagues, asking them to check if they had any extra supplies, it turned out the Old Maitland Hospital had a number of consumables that weren't needed at the new hospital.

In April, volunteers and non-clinical staff spent days packaging up surplus supplies like dressings, syringes, canulas, bandages and PPE.

The project saw 180 boxes of supplies sent to where they are desperately needed.

Volunteers Trevor Lynch, Eve Harwood, Marilyn Guganovic, Marie Clune and Loraine Davies, as well as non-clinical staff Dr Adam Walczak, Tamie Geosits and Elizabeth Smith packaged, carefully catalogued and labelled the boxes - which was vital for getting them through customs.

"They did an amazing job, 180 boxes is quite a lot," Dr Grist said.

Logistics company CHL donated their services delivering the boxes on their trucks, and QANTAS donated their services in flying them over to London.

From here, volunteers took the boxes to the Polish border, where they were met by Ukrainian drivers and taken to Kiev Medical University.

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In Kiev, doctors sorted through the supplies and delivered them to where they were needed most.

"Last night I got photos sent to me of some of our equipment arriving to doctors that needed needed it and it was so it's so wonderful to actually see it," Dr Grist said.

Dr Grist's nephew James Sneesby is a nurse manager at Maitland Hospital, and he has organised a Newcastle for Ukraine fundraising event at Hexham Bowling Club in NSW's Hunter region on Saturday, May 28 at 6.30pm.

The Mater, John Hunter Children's Hospital, John Hunter Hospital and Tamworth Hospital (with help from smaller New England hospitals) have also made contributions to Ukraine, and the effort is still ramping up with more hospitals about to get donations underway.

NSW Health is currently providing access to public hospital services free of charge for people from Ukraine who arrived in Australia on or after Wednesday, December 1, 2021.