A former emergency room doctor is taking on leadership of Nova Scotia’s health authority at what he says is a crucial point for the agency created in a merger four years ago.
In a release today, the Nova Scotia Health Authority announced Dr. Brendan Carr will start his work as chief executive officer effective Dec. 16 this year.
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Carr served as vice-president of medicine with the former Capital District Health Authority in Halifax, and from 2007 until 2012 was a professor in the department of emergency medicine at Dalhousie University, before leaving to work in British Columbia.
He served as chief executive of the Vancouver Island Health Authority, now Island Health, and is currently president and chief executive officer of the William Osler Health System in Brampton and Etobicoke, Ont.
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Carr says the health authority in Nova Scotia is at “critical point in its evolution,” as it plans for a $2-billion hospital reconstruction project and tries to deal with issues including doctor shortages and hospital crowding.
The 2015 decision to create the authority through a merger of nine districts has resulted in an agency that now operates with a $2.2-billion budget and has 23,400 employees.