As of January 1, Hastings Prince Edward Public Health (HPEPH) has officially merged with two other eastern Ontario health units to become part of the newly formed South East Health Unit.
This comes after the boards of three separate health units voted unanimously to merge in early December.
On Wednesday, the recently merged Board of Health met for the first time, officially launching the new public health agency made up of Hastings Prince Edward Public Health (HPEPH); Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Public Health (KFLA); and the Leeds, Grenville and Lanark (LGL) District Health Unit.
The new health unit will cover nearly 20,000 square kilometres, and serve more than 550,000 residents.
The Ministry of Health says they will provide funding for the first three years of the transition process.
“A merger of our three agencies will strengthen capacity and local public health programs and services, resulting in overall healthier communities across the southeast region,” said HPEPH Board Chair Jan O’Neill, after the merger vote in December.
O’Neil is the mayor of Marmora and Lakes Township. This week she was also voted in as board chair for the newly merged South East Health Unit.
After the merger was announced in December, Bancroft Mayor Paul Jenkins praised O’Neils knowledge and leadership, saying that he also believes that the merger will provide benefit through shared resources.
“Sometimes public health issues aren’t always occurring at the same time everywhere.” he told MooseFM. “They sort of migrate from region to region. And I think one of the big selling points was that they (health units) could share expertise.”
The South East Health Unit Board consists of four municipal representatives from each legacy agency. The four representatives for our area are Board Chair Mayor O’Neil, and councilors from Belleville, Quinte West and Prince Edward County.
There is no representative from North Hastings on the new board.
In a news release, the health unit noted that the new governance structure will “ensure that the entire southeast region has the benefit of four experts guiding public health issues locally, while still ensuring that each geographic area retains local leadership during the transition to a larger agency.”
They added that collaboration with local partners will continue as each office works with their communities to “ensure a smooth transition to a merged entity and to maintain appropriate services and supports across the southeast region.”
Dr. Piotr Oglaza will be the Medical Officer of Health and CEO for the merged agency, while Dr. Ethan Toumishey and Dr. Linna Li will both be named Deputy Medical Officers of Health who will respectively cover “two vast geographic regions.”
Dr. Li will be supporting the LGL region and Frontenac County, while Dr. Toumishey will be supporting the HPE region, L&A County, and the City of Kingston.
The South East Health Unit is currently developing new branding, which is expected to take several months. In the meantime, logos and other advertising material from the former health agencies will remain.
People will also see some documents using the legal name South East Health Unit. The South East Health Unit says that they ‘appreciate everyone’s patience’ as they transition to their new branding.
Office addresses, phone numbers, websites and social media accounts have not changed at this time. The public is asked to continue to interact with their local public health office as they usually would until otherwise directed.
For more information residents of Hastings and Prince Edward Counties should contact www.hpePublicHealth.ca or call 1-800-267-2803.
