News Release

HHS Maintains Lead Federal Role for Emergency Public Health and Medical Response

HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson announced that under the new National Response Plan released today by the Department of Homeland Security, HHS will continue to lead the federal government in providing public health and medical services during major disasters and emergencies.

"HHS will continue to work closely with all our partners to protect the health of the American public," Secretary Thompson said. "The National Response Plan will help strengthen crucial working relationships between federal, state, local and tribal officials, and the private sector concerned with public health issues during disasters or terrorist attacks."

The National Response Plan divides the government's emergency operations into 15 emergency support functions. HHS is the lead agency for Emergency Support Function Eight (ESF-8) -- public health and medical services. In this role and through the HHS Secretary's Operations Center, the department coordinates all federal resources related to public health and medical services made available to assist state, local and tribal officials during a major disaster or emergency.

HHS responsibilities under ESF-8 include coordination of HHS assets such as the Secretary's Emergency Response Teams, the Surgeon General's cadre of deployable health care professionals from the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's public health experts and its Laboratory Response Network, and the Strategic National Stockpile of pharmaceuticals and medical equipment.

During major disasters and emergencies, HHS will also coordinate medical resources from all other federal agencies. This includes the Department of Homeland Security's National Disaster Medical System assets such as the Disaster Medical Assistance Teams; use of the Department of Veterans' Affairs facilities and health care professionals; and the Department of Defense's medical resources.

"Congratulations to Secretary Ridge and his interagency teams who all worked long and hard in accomplishing their mission," Secretary Thompson said. "The National Response Plan will ensure we respond effectively and efficiently to any incident which requires coordinated action between agencies at all levels of government."

A complete copy of the National Response Plan is available online as a PDF file at http://www.dhs.gov/nationalresponseplan.

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Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are available at http://www.hhs.gov/news.

Last revised: January 6, 2005