The Haliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge District Health Unit has named a new leader.
 
Dr. Natalie Bocking is the new Medical Officer of Health for the health unit, which oversees Northumberland County.
 
She is replacing current MOH Dr. Lynn Noseworthy, who announced her intentions to retire in June, before the COVID-19 pandemic response pushed her official last day to December 11.
 
The health unit stated Dr. Ian Gemmill will serve as acting Medical Officer of Health before Dr. Bocking takes over on April 5, 2021.
 
Bocking is highly educated, with a Public Health and Preventative Medicine Specialist certification by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in 2015 after completing specialty training at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Bocking’s academic training also includes a Medical Doctorate from McMaster University and Masters in International Public Health from the University of Sydney, Australia. 

Dr. Bocking has spent the past four years working as a public health physician with Thunder Bay District Health Unit and Sioux Lookout First Nations Health Authority, where she supported the development of a community-based First Nations governed public health system for 31 rural and remote First Nations. 

She and her family moved to the City of Kawartha Lakes in the fall of 2019.