DHEC to split into two new agencies

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WSPA) According to public health officials, South Carolina tops the list of states with the most residents experiencing food insecurity. It’s also ranked 45th out of the 50 states in terms of overall health.

“Our goal is to be the number one state for health across various measures,” said Dr. Edward Simmer, the interim director of the South Carolina Department of Public Health.

Working towards Dr. Simmer’s goal will become more feasible, he said, by splitting the department of health and environmental control (DHEC) into two new agencies.

One of those is the department of environmental services, which will handle responsibilities like air quality, coastal management, land and waste management and water services.

Officials said the other new agency, the public health department, will have three divisions and focus on making healthcare more accessible, as well as protecting South Carolinians from disease, illness, and injury.

“They’re going to see their overall health improve, they’re going to see the facilities they put their mom or dad in improve,” said Dr.Simmer.

He said the goal is to eliminate the idea that one resource can help every issue and instead, enable more community-based resources.

“You can’t have a healthy, thriving community without healthy people, but it’s very hard to have healthy people if the community is not healthy,” said Dr. Simmer.

We’re told freeing up some resources allows for public health officials to do more, like conduct health inspections on weekends and late nights, creating a higher standard. They said it allows environmental services to be more present in specific communities, and tailor the help to the area.

Officials said the DHEC food safety program will move to the department of agriculture and the authority to operate state run veterans nursing homes will move to the department of veterans affairs, from the department of mental health.

“As they see these things and services come out that are targeted to the needs of their specific community, they’re really going to be able to see people are healthier, there’s a better quality of life in South Carolina, and that’s going to benefit all of us,” said Dr. Simmer.

The department of health said the transition will officially begin on Monday, July 1st.

Two-thirds of the funding for this, according to officials, is coming from federal grants.

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