A plaque reading, "The Dr Dhun Noria SHL Staff Wellness Courtyard” was recently unveiled in the gardens of Sunnybrook’s Bayview Campus in Ontario in the presence of her peers, colleagues and family members. The plaque further introduces her as "a previous chair of the board of SHL (Shared Hospital Laboratory), her personal story is inspirational and her commitment to patient care and the Ontario health system is unsurpassed. She envisioned, championed, and was the driving force behind the creation of SHL.”
Above: Dr Dhun Noria (2nd from l) with family at the naming of the Courtyard celebrating her work
Her portrait will be hung in the SHL board room, "in recognition of the tremendous contributions” Noria has made to healthcare across the province. SHL, as a partnership between Scarborough Health Network, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Michael Garron Hospital and North York General Hospital, provides high-quality microbiology laboratory services. By providing Covid-19 testing for Public Health Ontario Laboratory and 20 other health care facilities, it has covered millions across Ontario.
As remarked the health care trailblazer, "SHL has been an important part of my professional life for 26 years. I am truly proud and honored to work with our forward-thinking team. These people are not just frontline workers. To me they are warriors and they are soldiers in this epic Covid-19 battle.”
Noria’s career, as summarized on the website of Scarborough Health Network
www.shn.ca, has had a significant impact on Ontario’s health care system. She was appointed by the Premier and Lt Governor in Council as chair of Metro Toronto District Health Council with a mandate to restructure 44 hospitals in Metro Toronto. Erstwhile chief of laboratory medicine at Scarborough Health Network Foundation, she was one of the founding physicians of its Birchmount Hospital. Noria’s philanthropy and leadership has helped position the organization as a leader in health care. Throughout her 30 plus years of support, Dhun and her husband Farokh Noria have donated over one million dollars (six crore rupees) cumulatively to the Foundation.
Over the years she has won many awards for her commitment to the health care field in Canada, including the Order of Ontario Award — the province’s highest honor; Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee Medal as also the Platinum Jubilee Medal; a star in the Scarborough Walk of Fame; Presidential Medal from the Ontario Medical Association; and Professional and Business Woman of the Year through the Canada-India Business Council.