Meck County Health Department considering public health board

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Mecklenburg County leaders voted 6-2 to create a committee to explore changing who governs the Health Department.

Channel 9 has covered multiple scandals inside the embattled agency. In early 2017, the county failed to tell 185 women about abnormal pap smear results.

Later that year, leaders inadvertently sent Channel 9 private medical information of hundreds of patients.

Last month, a health technician spoke out after he says he was fired from his job in the department for being a whistleblower.

Currently, county manager Dena Diorio oversees the department.

The public is concerned because she has no medical experience.

Some county commissioners want to strip Diorio of her powers and bring in a group of experts to oversee the department.

The potential changes to the agency’s governance could include an advisory board, privatizing the department and a separate board of health.

Vice-chair Jim Puckett said Mecklenburg County is the only county in North Carolina that operates its Health Department without independent medical oversight.

“I find it hard to believe the other 99 counties are completely wrong,” Puckett said.

Commissioners Ella Scarborough and Dumont Clarke opposed creating the board.

Clarke said he has faith that Diorio is the best person for the job

“I feel like it is a little bit like a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” Clarke said.

Cox Media Group