SC Public Health Agency Ready to Launch – The Island News

By Abraham Kenmore

SCDailyGazette.com

COLUMBIA — South Carolina’s new public health agency is ready to launch in a week.

On July 1, the 50-year-old Department of Health and Environmental Control will be split into two: the Department of Public Health and the Department of Environmental Services.

“The people we serve will see no interruption to the services they depend on for their good health and peace of mind thanks to our dedicated staff,” Dr. Edward Simmer, DHEC director since 2021 and acting director of the new public health agency, said in a statement Monday.

“Our employees have done their best to prepare us for this transition and ensure that absolutely no one – not those we serve nor our employees – falls through the cracks before, during and after this agency transition,” said -he continued.

The public health agency will have 2,900 employees across the state, according to a release. The new environmental agency will share more information once it launches, according to a spokesperson.

Public health employees will move to new offices outside of downtown Columbia, but not until January. The rent for the new offices still has to be paid from the budget, which has not yet been finalized. Only then can renovation work on the new offices begin.

Some of the current functions of the Department of Health and Environmental Control will be transferred to other agencies.

Inspection of food, including restaurants and dairy, will be transferred to the state Department of Agriculture. Oversight of veterans’ homes will be transferred to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

A bill that would have further consolidated state agencies into a single Executive Office of Health and Policy died this year in the final minutes of the legislative session.

The bill would have created a new Executive Office of Health and Policy, which would become South Carolina’s largest state agency, with more than 6,300 employees.

It would combine separate agencies overseeing services for seniors, mental health issues, disabilities, Medicaid patients, and drug and alcohol users, as well as an unknown number of workers hired after the dissolution of the agency. health and environment agency.

But on May 9, the last day of the legislative session, members of the House Freedom Caucus, a far-right group, blocked a vote on the bill.

Some lawmakers, including Gov. Henry McMaster, hoped lawmakers would add the bill to the agenda for a special session, a move that would require supermajority agreement. But lawmakers have taken no action to make that happen.

Abraham Kenmore is a journalist who covers elections, health care and more. He joins the SC Daily Gazette from The Augusta Chronicle, where he reported on Georgia lawmakers, the military and housing issues.

SC Daily Gazette is part of States Press Roomthe nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.