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"Our nation's hospitals stand in the first line of defense against potential incidents that could involve large scale casualties, including bioterrorism and chemical terrorism," said HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson. "They must be ready to respond effectively, and they need the nation's assistance to become prepared."

The funding would help build an effective nationwide network prepared to respond to large scale casualties, as well as helping to provide specific materials to be immediately available in hospitals, and helping to support new clinical personnel. The spending would be used to support:

• expanded capacity of hospitals and outpatient facilities to confront large scale casualty incidents;
• improve capabilities to control infection and treat individuals at risk for a communicable disease;
• training in recognition of rare diseases and treatment of toxic exposures; and
• infrastructure improvements including infectious disease containment systems.

"Our first goal is to ensure that hospitals on the front lines have the capacity to identify the signs of biological attack and to be prepared to respond to biological and chemical incidents," Secretary Thompson said. "In addition, hospitals must be better prepared to control infection for communicable diseases. We also want to help hospitals purchase the equipment they need, including personal protective equipment, to enable them to maintain service, control infection and decontaminate as needed."

Secretary Thompson said hospitals will work in coordination with their states' preparedness plans to ensure that emergency response networks are in place. Earlier this month, he provided $1.1 billion in fiscal year 2002 funds to the nation's governors to immediately begin the process of upgrading emergency response capabilities aimed especially at biological events.

In addition to the $518 million for hospital preparedness, the President's budget for fiscal year 2003 also proposes a new program that would provide $60 million for bioterrorism-related education and training for physicians, nurses and other health care professionals; $21 million to ensure our poison control centers provide scientifically based information about the latest threats; and $19 million to help prepare emergency medical services systems to meet the special needs of children in a biological or chemical incident.

The funding proposed for hospitals and training is part of the total $4.3 billion proposed for bioterrorism preparedness budget in the HHS budget for next year, an increase of 45 percent over the current year, and more than 10 times the amount of HHS spending on bioterrorism in fiscal year 2001.

HHS bioterrorism preparedness funding in fiscal year 2003 includes another $940 million to continue assisting state and local governments to prepare for potential incidents; and nearly $1.7 billion for research, development of vaccines and diagnostic tools and treatments, as well as infrastructure for research laboratories.

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