If a merger of the two local health units is approved by the province, who will lead the new organization and serve its 300,000 residents will be determined in the future, a health board chair said.
The board chairs of Peterborough Public Health (PPH) and the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit (HKPRDHU), along with both medical officers of health (MOHs) for the two health units, discussed the leadership issue during a media conference on Wednesday (February 28) when they announced the decision to voluntary merge and form one health unit.
The proposed merger requires approval by the provincial government before any changes occur.
HKPRDHU board of health chair David Marshall said leadership of the combined and much larger unit, assuming the province supports the merger, is “a major consideration.”
“It offers us an opportunity to look at the structure and some health units have MOHs and CEOs and some have assistant MOHs,” Marshall said.
“As the unit grows here … there’s only the two doctors/physicians currently on the two organizations, so it offers the opportunity to look at what is the best leadership structure moving forward, given that the organization will basically double in size.”
“That’s going to be a major consideration in the next few months,” he noted, adding the same applies for the merger of the two boards of health into a single board of health for the new organization.
The two health units combined serve about 300,000 residents in the city and county of Peterborough and Curve Lake and Hiawatha First Nations, the City of Kawartha Lakes, and Haliburton and Northumberland counties. The health units are currently led by two physicians, with Dr. Natalie Bocking at the helm of HKPRDHU as its MOH and Dr. Thomas Piggott as PPH’s MOH.
The boards announced on February 28 they will go ahead and seek provincial approval and funding to support the merger. The application will aim to demonstrate how a proposed merger would benefit the communities served by the health units, while supporting outcomes and priorities identified for public health by the Ministry of Health.
Mergers of public health units require provincial legislative change and will not be definitive until the government approves the merger and commits to funding the initiative.
Both PPH and HKPRDHU will continue to operate independently during the provincial review period.
“A new name has not been selected,” Dr. Bocking said. “That will be part of the planning process and done collaboratively across both health units.”
The HKPRDHU and PPH boards of health will submit a joint voluntary merger application to the Ontario government by April 2.
In August 2023, the Ministry of Health announced plans aimed at strengthening the public health sector by offering one-time funding, resources and supports to local public health agencies that decide to voluntarily merge by January 1, 2025.
