The Acting Medical Officer of Health for the Renfrew County and District Health Unit, Doctor Robert Cushman, formally retires at the stroke of midnight New Year’s Eve, and has been reflecting with us on his career.
While his credentials from Health Canada appear impressive in the COVID context, Cushman doesn’t stress his federal virology experience.
Situated in the Provincial context, as Health Care delivery is, Dr. Cushman has been the Medical Officer of Health for Ottawa, and the Acting Medical Officer locally for some seventeen years combined and won some of his biggest battles on these fronts.
Just as attitudes have changed toward tobacco over time, so too must we now move the needle on mental health and the opiod crisis.
And another battle just beginning? The myth there are health benefits to alcohol consumption.
By Rick Stow
