Oregon Health Authority Director Patric Allen Announced His Resignation!

Oregon Health Authority Director Patric Allen Announced His Resignation: Patrick Allen, the director of the Oregon Health Authority, has submitted his resignation, which will take effect on January 9. He did not state why he was resigning.

On the campaign trail, Tina Kotek, the incoming governor, threatened to oust him for the health authority’s inability to give Oregonians proper access to treatment for addiction and mental illness. Allen, 59, required treatment after falling in January and experiencing a significant medical issue.

According to The Lund Report, he has continued working even though he is formally retired and receiving a pension. The Oregon Health Authority has been run by Allen for the past five years. After a string of high-profile scandals rocked the agency in 2017, Gov. Kate Brown nominated him for the position of head of the organization.

In his letter of resignation, Allen stated, “I took the ideals that have guided me throughout my career — transparency, accountability, and the prudent use of public resources — to the work of regaining public trust in OHA.

Along with Brown, Allen came to be associated with the state’s forceful reaction to the COVID-19 outbreak. It’s possible that action saved lives. One of the last states to suspend the public masking orders was Oregon, which instituted a lockdown early on.

Additionally, compared to most other states, the state’s COVID-19 death rate for older persons was noticeably lower. However, Brown and Allen became unpopular as a result of the pandemic response that brought them into the spotlight, especially after the epidemic hurt the state’s educational system.

According to metrics of student learning loss throughout the epidemic, Oregon has performed very poorly. Allen spent a significant portion of his resignation letter defending both his and Brown’s performance and reiterating the agency’s target of eliminating health inequalities by 2030. In his letter, he said, “I have been proud to serve a governor who cares about the health and health fairness.

Breaking News: Oregon Health Authority Director Pat Allen & Behavioral Health Director Steve Allen have resigned. I’m glad to finally see change.

People are still dying because of a failed system. OHA still has a few more directors to fire. Like & Share to save a life. #orpol pic.twitter.com/wsSuINEsHL

— George Carrillo (@georgefororegon) November 17, 2022

“Thanks to your tough decisions, we were able to save hundreds of lives in Oregon,” Allen emphasized the high vaccination rates in Oregon, which are 81% for the state’s Latino population and 95% for those who identify as Black, African American, or African immigrant, for populations that were particularly hard struck by the pandemic.

The COVID-19 immunization rate for the Black community was the highest in any state throughout the country, he noted. One of the key responsibilities of the Oregon Health Authority is to oversee public health.

Additionally, it manages the Oregon Health Plan, the state’s Medicaid program, which offers insurance to roughly one in three Oregonians. The agency also manages the Oregon State Hospital, a secure psychiatric facility in Salem, and supervises the state’s mental health system.

“I brought the values that have guided me throughout my career — transparency, accountability, and the wise use of public resources — to the task of rebuilding public trust in OHA,” Allen wrote in his resignation letter. https://t.co/y3DEqaYEff

— OPB (@OPB) November 18, 2022

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