State – Recent concerns about swine flu in California prompted state representatives to assess the strength of its health departments when dealing with future influenza outbreaks. Members of the California Association of Public Health Laboratory Directors, or PHL Directors, testified before a California Senate Select Committee on Disaster and Emergency Response and the Senate Committee on Health on April 30th. Based on survey responses from counties that represent a total of 78 percent of the state's population, 722 local public health personnel who were available to deal with this outbreak will not be available after July 1. 60 PHL positions have either been eliminated or are scheduled to be eliminated from local government budgets. According to Dennis Ferrero, the organizations Executive Director, this is “solely due to lack of resources, versus a lack of need.” These health departments will lose $70 million in funding. If those numbers are extrapolated for the whole state, the state would expect to lose a total of 920 positions and $90 million. The hearing, headed by Senators Dean Flores and Elaine Alquist and Assemblymember Dave Jones, was designed to assess the financial needs of Public Health Laboratory Directors and the state of public health response as a whole. Ferrero says capacity needs to sustain current PHL efforts and respond to the escalating influenza outbreak require an estimated $14.6 million for equipment, supplies, personnel reinstatement and increased capacity. “We respectfully request any additional funding allocated for the purposes of local PHL capacity be clearly identified as for local PHL use only,” he said. The figures presented were independent of the needs for other local public health capacity. The committee will consider these figures when making budget recommendations. CAPHLD represents 38 local public health laboratory directors who provide services to the citizens of California, including Amador County. Independent of the California Department of Public Health, the group provides 95 percent of the state’s PHL capacity to respond to communicable diseases of public health significance. Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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State – Recent concerns about swine flu in California prompted state representatives to assess the strength of its health departments when dealing with future influenza outbreaks. Members of the California Association of Public Health Laboratory Directors, or PHL Directors, testified before a California Senate Select Committee on Disaster and Emergency Response and the Senate Committee on Health on April 30th. Based on survey responses from counties that represent a total of 78 percent of the state's population, 722 local public health personnel who were available to deal with this outbreak will not be available after July 1. 60 PHL positions have either been eliminated or are scheduled to be eliminated from local government budgets. According to Dennis Ferrero, the organizations Executive Director, this is “solely due to lack of resources, versus a lack of need.” These health departments will lose $70 million in funding. If those numbers are extrapolated for the whole state, the state would expect to lose a total of 920 positions and $90 million. The hearing, headed by Senators Dean Flores and Elaine Alquist and Assemblymember Dave Jones, was designed to assess the financial needs of Public Health Laboratory Directors and the state of public health response as a whole. Ferrero says capacity needs to sustain current PHL efforts and respond to the escalating influenza outbreak require an estimated $14.6 million for equipment, supplies, personnel reinstatement and increased capacity. “We respectfully request any additional funding allocated for the purposes of local PHL capacity be clearly identified as for local PHL use only,” he said. The figures presented were independent of the needs for other local public health capacity. The committee will consider these figures when making budget recommendations. CAPHLD represents 38 local public health laboratory directors who provide services to the citizens of California, including Amador County. Independent of the California Department of Public Health, the group provides 95 percent of the state’s PHL capacity to respond to communicable diseases of public health significance. Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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