Mr. de Mora moves back to Kingston from Sudbury, where he is currently President and CEO of the Sudbury Regional Hospital; from 1981 to 1986 he was Vice President (operations) at KGH. But he has not always worked in Ontario, and from 1988 to 1995 was half a world away. He served as Director General and CEO of the Aga Khan University Hospital in Karachi, Pakistan; CEO of the Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya and as East African Regional Health Services Coordinator.
Mr.de Mora was kind enough to provide some perspectives on his experiences in Asia and Africa, which he also feels have helped prepare him for his role in Kingston. While there are some similarities (e.g. limited resources, recruitment issues and new program development) there are obviously profound differences:
“My time working internationally changed my perspective in several ways. In particular it was possible to see first hand the devastation that is caused by lack of adequate health prevention and education. This was particularly true when exacerbated by issues of clean water supply and the availability of adequate nutrition and food.” And yet “there is a sense there that what you do really counts for something. The Aga Khan Organization for which I worked is superb. It has had a significant impact on improving the role of and respect for women – through its support of nursing in Pakistan, and in helping to move towards self-sufficiency by tying together programs aimed simultaneously at health education and economic development. My exposure to the interrelationship helped me to understand how we must plan here in the west. To be healthy, children, adults and communities must be properly fed, educated, and must have a means of sustaining themselves economically.
Since my days in Asia and Africa I have had a profound respect for the need to form alliances and networks between those involved in health care education and business. I have learned that there is seldom only one way to approach a problem, even when sources are constrained; I have learned that there are many points of view, and I have learned to respect these differences and to make the sum of the parts greater as a result. Tolerance of change, the interrelationship of different sectors of the economy and the need to work together fall naturally from my time in Asia and Africa.”
Ismailimail 