The new Chief Medical Health Officer at the Interior Health Authority says the new Medical Health Officer for the Thompson-Cariboo will start next week.
Dr. de Villiers just started in his position following the BC Day long weekend. He says he is excited to work with Dr. Carol Fenton.
“I am really looking forward to it. I have already met her. She actually started before I started. For a few months she has been in Kelowna getting orientated and making sure she understands the region and meets all the important role players. So yes, she will be starting there next week.”
“Think it’s important for us as public health leaders to get out in the community and to actually meet the people and I know it’s a difficult time with COVID and lots of things are happening virtually, but hopefully over time she’ll be able to establish herself there as a public health leader in that area.”
It has been about 10 years since the Kamloops region has had a Medical Health Officer.
Dr. de Villiers is coming from Grand Prairie was he was the lead Medical Health Officer with Alberta’s north zone. Before that he spent three years in northern Manitoba and he moved to Canada from South Africa in 2001. He says the health issues here are very similar.
“We have also got opioid crisis all over Canada. COVID now hit us all over. And in Alberta I was really heavily involved in the emergency disaster management group as well planning for the impending pandemic and then dealing with the pandemic together with all the excellent people in Alberta. And also some of the other similar issues injuries, issues around equity and first nations health and mental health and addictions. So there’s quite a bit of similarities.”
Dr. de Villiers says he has not had much of a choice but to hit the ground running and he is up for the challenge. “It’s never up to me alone, I think there’s an excellent team in Interior Health and I’ve met most of the one’s that will be working closely with me and I’m going to be leaning heavily on them initially. Fortunately it’s not a one man show or a one man effort, I’m going to really rely on the team to make sure we keep up the good work and change things where we need to and keep on continuously improving like they’ve been doing here.”
