SC’s public health agency ready to launch

Dr. Edward Simmer, interim agency director for the Department of Public Health, speaks at a press conference on the launch of the new department on Monday, June 24, 2024 (Provided by the Department of Health and Environmental Control)

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

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

“Those we serve will not see any disruptions to the services that they depend on for good health and peace of mind thanks to our dedicated staff,” said Dr. Edward Simmer, DHEC’s director since 2021 and interim director of the new public health agency, in a statement Monday.

“Our employees have gone above and beyond to ready us for this transition and ensure that absolutely no one — not those we serve or our employees — falls through the cracks before, during and after this agency transition,” he continued.

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

Public health employees will be moving to new offices outside downtown Columbia, but not before January. Rent for the new offices still has to be paid through the budget, which has not yet been finalized. Only then can work begin on renovating the new offices.

What comes next in major shift of SC’s health and environmental agencies

A few of the current duties of the Department of Health and Environmental Control will be transferred to other agencies.

Food inspection, including of restaurants and dairy, will move to the state Department of Agriculture.

Oversight of veterans’ homes will also move to the Department of Veterans Affairs from the Department of Mental Health.

A bill that would have further combined agencies in the state into one Executive Office of Health and Policy died this year in the last 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 the elderly, mental health issues, disabilities, patients covered by Medicaid, and those addicted to drugs and alcohol, plus an unknown number of workers brought over after the health and environmental agency breakup.

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

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

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