Professor Michael Kidd to step down from DoH

Former GP and Deputy Chief Medical Officer Professor Michael Kidd is leaving the Department of Health and Aged Care (DoH).
 
Professor Kidd, who was RACGP President for four years from 2002–6, has been announced as the inaugural director of the new UNSW Centre for Future Health Systems.
 
It is being established ‘to promote sustainable, equitable, and person-centred healthcare for all people in Australia’.
 
The UNSW website declares the centre will lead ‘to transformational change of the Australian health system’, which it describes as ‘mired in centuries of historical and often out-dated practices’.
 
Professor Kidd has also been appointed Professor of Global Primary Care and Future Health Systems at The University of Oxford, which is working in partnership with UNSW. 
 
The Deputy Chief Medical Officer has become a widely known face in his official capacity responding to the pandemic, with many GPs likely to recognise him from his role hosting the COVID-19 updates for Primary Care webinar.
 
This Thursday’s webinar will be his last.
 
Prior to the onset of the pandemic, Professor Kidd had been based in Canada where he acted as a consultant with the World Health Organization, while he is also a past president of the World Organization of Family Doctors.
 
A graduate from the University of Melbourne Medical School, he has a research doctorate from Monash University.
 
His previous senior academic roles include posts as Professor of Primary Care Reform at the Australian National University, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at Flinders University, and Head of the Department of General Practice at the University of Sydney.
 
Professor Kidd was included in the recent King’s Birthday Honours List, in which he became an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for his ‘distinguished service in medical administration and community health, to primary care leadership, and to tertiary education’.
 
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Department of Health and Aged Care Professor Michael Kidd