A key player in a major provincial political scandal has taken up temporary work at the city’s hospital.
Former Ornge air ambulance president and CEO Dr. Chris Mazza has been brought in as an emergency room locum doctor at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre.
Hospital chief of staff Dr. Gordon Porter said Mazza completed his first turn over the weekend and is welcome back if he desires a return to clinical medicine.
“He expressed interest through professional colleagues and recognizing there was a need and opportunity,” Porter said on Monday.
“He quite frankly told me he was coming to see what the opportunity and possibility may be. I’d certainly like to see him come back and fill a short-term need, and I think based on the feedback on what I’ve heard from this weekend we can see him filling a larger role.”
Before his Ornge career, Mazza worked as a trauma team leader at Toronto’s Sunnybrook Hospital and graduated as a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians with a specialty in emergency medicine.
In 2011 Mazza was the highest paid public official in Ontario, making nearly $2 million before being ousted amid scandal over different controversial practices at the air ambulance service.
Some of the claims involving Mazza, which include his salary, lavish expenses, questionable loans and accusations of attempting to generate profits out of the service, have been the subject of an OPP probe.
Despite the notoriety, Porter said he has no concerns about bringing Mazza in to serve at the hospital.
He explained he is focused on providing the best possible care for all patients at the facility, and Mazza comes in with a strong background in terms of both education and experience.
“My role as as a chief of staff is to ensure the quality and safety for every patient received in this hospital is appropriate. The professional staff is credentialed based on their merit and medical training and based on that and through due diligence I have no concerns,” Porter said
“He did some care through the weekend, and the feedback I heard was exemplary as expected.”
Mazza is just one case of the hospital turning to a series of temporary doctors to fill the gaps in the system.
The emergency department has been specifically hit with the loss of a handful of doctors.
“We have recognized for years that we are locum dependant in many areas,” Porter said.
“We have a need right now in emergency medicine because of the departure of six physicians, and we recognized in exit interviews what some of the immediate needs to be addressed were.”
Porter explained that the hospital has secured sufficient locum coverage until the summer of next year, and then will transition into family practice residents with the goal of being independent from using locums by 2015.
