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Q&A
DOHMH Emergency Preparedness efforts and budget
2:23:40
ยท
92 sec
Council Member Lynn Schulman inquires about DOHMH's emergency preparedness efforts and budget. Acting Commissioner Michelle Morse explains the department's approach to emergency preparedness and its distinction from the Office of Emergency Management.
- All 7,000 DOHMH employees have potential roles in emergency response
- A specific division focused on emergency preparedness has a budget of $41 million
- DOHMH's role is distinct from NYSIM, which coordinates emergencies for the city
Lynn Schulman
2:23:40
Undue, okay.
2:23:41
All right, so I also want to ask you, every year I ask this question in the budget.
2:23:46
You have a line for emergency preparedness.
2:23:50
What does that really involve?
2:23:51
Because I just want the delineation between that and the Office of Emergency Management.
Michelle Morse
2:23:58
Absolutely.
2:23:59
So our agency is very very much focused on and invested in emergency preparedness.
2:24:07
In fact I would say that all 7,000 employees of the health department have the potential to have a role in any emergency response.
2:24:15
Each of them based on their skill set is assigned within our systems for because of their expertise a role that they could or would potentially play were there to be a public health emergency.
2:24:30
So that is kind of one of the ways in which we organize all of our emergency preparedness work across the New York City Health Department.
2:24:37
That is distinct from NYSIM.
2:24:38
NYSIM does coordination for emergencies on behalf of the city.
2:24:42
We do have again all staff have the potential to play a role in an emergency, but we do have one division that is specifically focused on emergency preparedness, operations, training, etcetera and the budget for that division is $41,000,000
Lynn Schulman
2:24:59
And so that's for staff and for the training and everything else because it's a lot of money that's why I'm asking.
2:25:06
If we could have a breakdown because I always ask every year and then we don't get it
Michelle Morse
2:25:10
but we'd be happy to share that
Sandy Nurse
2:25:12
and follow-up.
Lynn Schulman
2:25:12
Thank you.