Climatewire | When the McBride forest fire broke out in New Mexico three years ago, David Merritt had a mathematics problem.
The fire was approaching a Lincoln County hospital with 11 admitted patients, but ambulance drivers evacuated those patients who were busy fighting the fire in Woldally. The strong winds ruled out air evacuations. There were also only two directors of the city of Raidoso, and the way he led to the most necessary hospital was in the evacuation zone.
Merritt, who is a federal coordinator of preparation for medical care, needed not only to find drivers, but to those who could patients at an hour away. And he did, calling people and resources through the State.
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But the next time there is a fire, Merritt might not be there to help.
President Donald Trump has asked Congress to eliminate funds for the Hospital Preparation Program of the Department of Health and Human Services, which completely finances the Merritt salary.
That could stop the work that Merritt is doing this year to ensure that local officials have a plan to prevent measles from spreading in evacuation shelters used by forest fires.
“All my work is to discover all the things that are going to go wrong and discover how to work together cooperatively to solve those problems, but it may not be here,” said Merritt. “If HPP leaves, nothing of that work is already done.”
The hospital preparation program is not just for hospitals. Created after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the program also finances the training for emergency administrators and emergency responders to ensure that every aspect of the medical care system of a region has a plan and is able to communicate during disasters, whether pandemics, cyber attacks, mass shootings, wild fires or hurricanes.
The program has paid unified communications systems between emergency hospitals and responders, and chemical decontamination supplies as well. It also provides the salary for regional coordinators through the United States to help manage training and respond to events.
Trump’s tax request 2026 for Congress asks legislators to be $ 240 million in funds for the program, which is part of the HHS administration for preparation and response. The budget justifies the request by saying that the HPP “has been wasteful and unbridled.”
“This proposal remedies these defects by allowing states and territories to adequately reach and finance hospital preparation,” he says. The HHS sent the questions that requested more details about those “failures” to the administration and budget office, which did not answer the news of E & e of Polico at the time of publication.
Coordinators who are founded for the program say that it provides critical support to states and territories.
“It is eliminating a system that brings together several agencies in advance to respond to disasters, it is reducing many networks and a lot of preparation, a lot of training and many resources that we obtain in advance to allow us to respond proactively to disasters,” said TL Davis, who was the reading and response coordinator for the Northan Coordinator prepared and emergency emergency emergency response systems until 2022.
In June 2021, his office jumped to action when multiple tornadoes scratched Northast Arkansas, crushing not one but two elderly homes. Local emergency responders were already flooded with calls, so Davis’s coalition sent an Ambubio, a vehicle that looks like a school bus but is equipped as an ambulance to treat multiple injured people. The Ambubus, which had bought with HPP funds, helped evacuate and care for more than 100 patients from the elderly.
“If we did not have that HPP financing, we would have bone capable of doing so, the response times would have a much longer leg and we could have had victims,” said Davis.
Tom Cotter founded the health response alliance, a non -profit organization that advocates resilience in medical care systems. He said HPP and coordinator funds Ti are particularly invaluable in medical events of mass of mass.
“When something happens, you want the system to work together as a whole instead of the disarticulated units that work on their own,” Cotter said. “The hospital preparation program helps that happen.”
That is what happens in the hurricanes of North Carolina. Duration both Hurricanes Florence and Helene, the Duke health preparation coalition, funded by HPP, had the task of performing special shelters for patients with unique medical needs, such as those that require or fans.
“These are people who need 24 hours, and if we did not have these shelters, they would have to go to the duration of hospitals when you want to keep the load out of hospitals,” said J. David Marsee, the preparation for medical care. “When we appear, we are working closely with local agencies to help remove that burden.”
Duration disasters, Marse’s coalition depends largely on the voluntary staff of the University of Duke and its medical care system. The university is now “working through different alternatives” for which I could happy if the HPP is disbursed, he said.
“We are not sure how well prepared for the next disaster we can be,” said Marse.
The president of the Florida Hospitals Association, Maryhew, said that HPP has been fundamental to help train medical care groups in their state around evacuations related to hurricanes. That was particularly true the past fall that hurricane Michael fell, when more than 300 medical care centers, including hospitals and elderly homes, had to be evacuated before a storm planned to cover a large strip of the state.
“We are still tested again and again and more complex challenges and this work is founding to support all the efforts that occur in the midst of a disaster response,” he said.
Reprint of E&E news With permission from politician, LLC. Copyright 2025. E&E News provides essential news for energy and environment professionals.
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