The Western Tidewater Health District is currently without a permanent director.

Dr. Lisa McCoy, who has overseen the health services for Suffolk and Franklin, and Isle of Wight and Southampton counties, for about three and a half years, resigned her position as director for the Western Tidewater district to take a job with the Norfolk District health department.

Dr. Nancy Welch has been appointed acting director of the Western Tidewater district.

“I really will miss the people I worked with in Suffolk,” McCoy said Friday. “All those folks were really great to work with.”

McCoy now serves as the medical director in Norfolk, which was half of her job in the Western Tidewater district. The other half was public health director. Norfolk is such a large district, however, that two people handle those jobs there.

McCoy’s new position involves working with medical and public health students at Eastern Virginia Medical School and handling the department’s services for pediatric and adolescent patients. Norfolk’s clinical services are broader than those in Western Tidewater and include a general medical clinic that sees patients for primary care.

“It’s a very different perspective on the health care practice,” McCoy said of her new position. “It’s a different approach to caring for patients.”

McCoy said she is looking forward to the potential for collaboration between the Norfolk Health District, the medical school and other Norfolk entities dedicated to health care.

Her old position already is being advertised, and will be filled as soon as possible.