New medical officer of health for KFL&A coming by summer’s end

Dr. Kieran Moore hasn’t been gone more than a week, but those at the top of KFL&A public health are already hard at work trying to find his replacement.

A working group is meeting this week to discuss the plan of action when it comes to bringing in a new medical officer of health.

“Well of course we’d like to clone Kieran but that’s not possible,” KFL&A Public Health Board Chair, Denis Doyle said. “So we want somebody who’s got a broad background in the health system in Ontario and someone that’s capable of working with our many partners.”

“We have a posting ready to go, and we’re thinking in terms of interviewing and having the ideal candidate chosen by the end of the summer,” acting KFL&A Public Health CEO Linda Murray said.

The board hopes to be able to post the position by the end of this month, launching the search for Dr. Moore’s replacement. Moore was chosen to take over from Dr. David Williams as Ontario’s chief medical officer of health.

They believe they’re well suited to find the ideal candidate

“We’re fortunate in Ontario that we’ve got quite a few medical officers of health,” Doyle said. “There are 34 health units and many of them have an associate medical officer of health.”

The successful candidate will have some big shoes to fill, and the board has a good idea of some of the traits they’d like their selection to have.

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“I think we have to have somebody who is very comfortable with the media, very comfortable with talking to stakeholders, and very comfortable with making hard decisions,” Murray said.

Dr. Hugh Guan, a doctor with public health, has been appointed as Kingston’s acting medical officer of health, until Moore’s permanent replacement is hired, sometime in late August.

–With a file from Nick Westoll