Peel medical officer of health Dr. Lawrence Loh leaving his post

Dr. Lawrence Loh, Peel Region’s medical officer of health, is leaving his post to become the executive director and CEO of the College of Family Physicians of Canada.

Loh, who led the public health response in one of the regions hit hardest in the pandemic, will take on his new role in September.

The college, which represents more than 42,000 doctors, cited Loh’s leadership during the COVID-19 crisis in its announcement of his appointmentnoting decisions he made as Peel’s top doctor “saved lives.”

During his time as the region’s top doctor, Loh imposed public health measures, such as banning large wedding receptions and shuttering non-essential businesses, that often came sooner and went further than those made by the province.

In April 2021, when COVID was burning through Peel and patients sick with the virus were overwhelming its hospitals, Loh issued a directive that ordered businesses with five or more COVID cases to close. A month earlier, Loh had ordered the temporary closure of an Amazon warehouse that employs about 5,000 workers due to an outbreak at the facility.

“His work with the team at Peel Public Health received national recognition for working collaboratively with the community and taking difficult, evidence-based decisions that saved lives and limited the impacts of the pandemic in one of Canada’s hardest hit communities,” the college said.

In an interview, Loh said it’s been “an honor and a privilege to serve the Region of Peel” during a difficult time. He said the public health team he relied on during the pandemic remains and that he “leaves the region in very good hands.”

In its statement, the college said “Loh brings with him an established track record in physician leadership, teaching, research and administration spanning five government agencies at all three levels of government in two different provinces.”

Loh said he’s looking forward to the challenges of “ensuring we can continue to promote health through a strong family medicine community in Canada.” He also said that public health and family medicine are similar in that they are the “underdogs” of health care.

“I’ve always said public health and primary care maybe don’t necessarily garner the same sort of flash as some of the bigger specialties (in medicine) but they are definitely doing everyday miracles for the community and their patients.”

Mississauga Major Bonnie Crombie tweeted her thanks to the doctor, saying the city “will be forever grateful to Dr. Loh for his leadership and advice during a difficult and uncertain time in our history.”

Loh, who started his medical career as a family physician in Brampton, joined Peel Public Health in 2016 as an associate medical officer of health. He had trained at the health unit while completing the University of Toronto’s Public Health and Preventive Medicine Residency Program.

Before COVID, Loh focused on chronic diseases and building healthy environments at Peel Public Health, often commuting by bus to the health unit’s Mississauga office from his Toronto home.

Loh became Peel’s acting medical officer of health at the start of the pandemic, just days before Premier Doug Ford declared a provincial emergency on March 17, 2020.

For a 2021 profile, Loh told the Star that it was upsetting when people blamed Peel and Brampton residents for fueling the pandemic.

“People in Peel have been sickened by this virus — some losing their lives — while doing their jobs and working so that everyone else in the province could stay safe,” he said in May 2021.

“Any emergency response, it ultimately plays out on the ground that it lands on. An earthquake hitting a desolate empty area is very different than an earthquake hitting San Francisco, in the same way that a pandemic landing in a rural area is different than landing in a densely populated area within the GTA.”

In its statement, the college said Loh is its sixth executive director and CEO. Loh will take over from Dr. Francine Lemire, who is retiring after 10 years in the leadership role.

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