The Contested Role of the Chief Medical Officer (CMO)
Delivered by Professor Patrick Fafard
When: Friday 21st April 2023, 4pm - 5.30pm
Where: Friends of GRI Museum, Glasgow Royal Infirmary (Cathedral Precinct, 84 Castle Street Glasgow G4 0SF)
How do governments make decisions in the face of a public health crisis like the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic? What role does scientific evidence play in making those?
To respond to pandemic risks, should decisions about public health measures remain the responsibility of experts or, given the scale and the crisis, be made by those we elect? We can begin to address such questions by careful consideration of the role of the Chief Medical Officer (CMO).
Professor Patrick Fafard is an expert in the public administration of public health, the political science of public health, and global health governance. Professor of Public and International Affairs and Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa, he has also previously served in the Government of Canada and multiple provincial governments.
In this keynote lecture organised by Strathclyde's Centre for Health Policy, Prof. Fafard will draw on research in Australia, Canada and the UK to explore the evolution of the role of CMO and in particular, how, why, and with what effect, CMOs became high profile public health heroes and - more recently - face demands that they resign or be dismissed.
