Regional health department audited

By Graeme McNaughton/The Oshawa Express

A recent audit of the Region of Durham’s health department by the Auditor General of Ontario (AGO) will form part of the latter’s annual report.

According to a memo attached in the May 12 council information package, the region’s health unit was first alerted to the audit in early March, with the team from the AGO’s office arriving later that month.

“The types of information that we were asked for included questions about our organization, questions about how we assess the health of the population and report on our performances, questions about our specific chronic disease prevention programs and services,” Dr. Robert Kyle, the region’s chief medical officer of health, tells The Oshawa Express.

“That entails healthy eating, active living, tobacco use prevention, those sorts of things. (They also looked at) financial information and, finally, information about our board of health.”

Kyle adds that similar audits were conducted at the public health boards of Toronto, Thunder Bay and Chatham-Kent.

Christine Pedias, a spokesperson for the AGO, says that this audit was part of a larger effort the office is conducting, with those results expected to be released in this year’s annual report. The AGO’s annual report typically comes out in late November or early December.

Kyle says there are likely to be more visits by auditors to the region over the next couple of months, with a draft report submitted for review by his office in the fall.

He adds that such audits are unusual.

“This is my first AGO audit in my 30 years as a medical officer of health,” he says.

“This is certainly the first time this has happened to me. About two, three years ago, the province’s immunization program was reviewed and I can’t recall whether or not any public health units were audited as part of that. A few years ago, there was an audit of the ambulance program, and EMS is part of my shop, and I don’t think we were audited as part of that.”