Dr. Perry Kendall | |
---|---|
Born |
Perry Robert William Kendall 1943 United Kingdom |
Citizenship | Canadian |
Occupation | Public health |
Years active | 1987-2015 |
Known for | harm reduction |
Medical career | |
Institutions |
Ministry of Health (British Columbia) |
Notable prizes | Order of British Columbia |
Ministry of Health (British Columbia)
Ontario Ministry of Health
Capital Regional District
Dr. Perry Kendall, OBC, MD, FRCPC (born 1943) is a Public health physician who is the first Provincial Health Officer (PHO) for the Canadian province of British Columbia's health ministry and was awarded the Order of British Columbia for contributions to Public health field and to harm reduction policy and practice.
Born in the United Kingdom in 1943, Dr. Kendall completed his undergraduate medical training at University College Hospital Medical School in 1968 before spending a year as Senior House Officer at the University Hospital of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica.
In 1972 he moved to Toronto, Canada working in general practice at the Hassle Free Clinic. Over the next two decades, Kendall moved back and forth between the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. He moved to Vancouver in 1974 to work for the Vancouver Health Department's Pine Free Clinic and East Health Unit while acquiring a master's degree in Health Care Planning and Epidemiology and a Fellowship in Community Medicine. He then returned to Ontario in 1984 to work as a manager with the Ontario Ministry of Health until 1987, when he returned to British Columbia as Medical Officer of Health for the Capital Regional District, in which capacity he opened one of Canada's first needle exchange programs.