Dr Emily Kirkpatrick quits SA Health for Calvary Medibank

One of the most familiar faces of the pandemic is leaving the public service.

Dr Emily Kirkpatrick with former Premier Stephen Marshall. Picture: Brenton Edwards

Dr Emily Kirkpatrick, who became one of the faces of the pandemic, is leaving SA Health for a private sector job with Calvary Medibank.

Dr Kirkpatrick joined SA Health in March 2020 and spent most of that time as deputy chief public health officer.

She often fronted press conferences and made other media appearances at the height of Covid-19. Friday is her last day.

Calvary Medibank is contracted to SA Health to provide the My Home Hospital service.

Dr Kirkpatrick said: “I am incredibly grateful for my time at SA Heath and the ability my role gave me to support South Australians through such a difficult global health crisis.

“My greatest achievement here was leading the community collaboration with our GPs to ensure the people of South Australia were able to access a high level of support during the pandemic and that is something I will always be really proud of.”

SA Health chief executive Dr Robyn Lawrence said Dr Kirkpatrick had made “a valuable contribution”.

“I know many South Australians are grateful for how our state responded to Covid-19 and that is in no small part thanks to Dr Kirkpatrick,” she said.

Dr Kirkpatrick was also executive director of community and primary care partnerships and deputy chief medical officer.

Dr Kirkpatrick and her team oversaw clinical care within hotel quarantine and “then more broadly as part of the community response to Covid-19”, SA Health said.

Her team hosted more than 100 webinars with the primary care sector, enabling the vast majority of Covid-19 patients to be cared for in their homes.