The new Health Protection Agency (
www.hpa.org.uk)
came into operation on 1 April in England and Wales. It draws together a range
of existing organisations and staff working in the surveillance, control and
research of communicable diseases, emergency planning, and chemical incident
handling, including:
- The former Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS), including the Communicable
Disease Surveillance Centre and the Central Public Health Laboratory
- The Centre for Applied Microbiology and Research
- The National Focus for Chemical Incidents
- The Regional Service Provider Units that support the management of chemical
incidents
- The National Poisons Information Service
- National Health Service (NHS) public health staff responsible for the
control of infectious disease, emergency planning and other protection
support
Integrating the expertise of surveillance, reference laboratories, and
response in one public health body will enable health professionals to be
better prepared to tackle threats to health from infections and environmental
hazards, the agency states.
The Health Protection Agency aims to deliver the following:
- A 'one stop shop' to investigate the health effects of infections, poisons,
and chemical and radiation hazards
- A more comprehensive early warning system to recognise diseases and
new threats to health, drawing on a wider network of laboratories, operating
to uniformly high standards
- Better anticipation and preparation for threats to health through horizon
scanning - looking ahead to the impact of forthcoming technologies and
developments, nationally and internationally
- Monitoring the long term effects of a wider range of hazards
- A dedicated resource for emergency planning
- An integrated response to emergencies involving chemicals, biological,
nuclear or radiation agents
- The same high standards of response to an outbreak or incident throughout
the country
- Easily available, authoritative and impartial information and advice
for the public
- More knowledgeable and skilled health protection staff
- More research into health protection
Email addresses for PHLS staff who have transferred to the Health Protection
Agency have the format of firstname.lastname@hpa.org.uk, although old email
addresses with the format initiallastname@phls.org.uk will remain usable
for some time. The PHLS website, www.phls.org.uk,
will be partly operational until the Health Protection Agency website is
finished.