Statement on the agreement between the former Chief Medical Officer of Health and the government

We are pleased that the former Chief Medical Officer of Health and the government have been able to reach a resolution to this long-standing matter.

We wish to reiterate a few things from our earlier public comments. One, we believe this is a poor ending to the former Chief’s work, which was recognised cross the country. Second, we believe this issue was not handled well, caused a lot of speculation and attention, and dragged on for far too long. Finally, we continue to hold our medical colleagues in public health in high esteem, and the public is well served by the professional physicians serving there today.

We believe legislation guaranteeing the independence of Medical Officers of Health is overdue and could have avoided a lot of recent controversy if it was already in place. We continue to call on government to pass such legislation quickly. We would be pleased to see this legislation enacted imminently and will support its creation however we can.

John Whelan, MD FRCPC
President, New Brunswick Medical Society