Quality care

Truro physician recipient of prestigious national award

Palliative care physician Dr. David Henderson of Truro was recently honoured in Ottawa as the 2017 recipient of the Sharon Carstairs Palliative Care Award of Excellence in Advocacy.

“David’s contribution to palliative care in Nova Scotia is significant,” said Tricia Cochrane, vice-president of Primary Health Care and Population Health, with the Nova Scotia Health Authority.

“He is known for his passion, commitment and clinical expertise.

“He is actively involved in planning to strengthen palliative care throughout the health system and in communities,” she said.

Granted by the Quality End of Life Care Coalition of Canada, the award was established in 2012 to recognize individuals who have, at a national level, contributed to and had an impact upon the enhancement of the quality of life for individuals and their loved ones facing a life-threatening illness and bereavement.

Among his current roles, Dr. Henderson is the medical director of the Palliative Care Program in Colchester-East Hants and an assistant professor with Dalhousie University’s Department of Family Medicine, president of the Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians and a longtime board member of the Colchester East Hants Hospice Society.

“It’s a great honour and it was a surprise,” Henderson told the Truro Daily News.

“The stuff that I am able to do, I’m only able to do it because of the great people I’m working with that allow it to happen.”