Health Protection Agency
A New National Agency
From 1 April 2003, the new national Health Protection Agency
(HPA) comes into being. This is a major new organisation for
England and Wales which will have local offices allied to a
regional and national structure. It will be created by merging
important national organisations - such as the Public Health
Laboratory Service and the Communicable Diseases Surveillance
Centre - with local staff from the former health authorities,
such as the Consultants in Communicable Disease Control (CCDCs)
and Specialist Nurses in Health Protection. Initially the HPA
will be a Special Health Authority and then, from 1 April 2004,
a Non-Departmental Public Body.
A New Local Team
A local HPA team has already been created, the South Yorkshire
Health Protection Service. The local team consists of the three
CCDCs in South Yorkshire (Drs Rosy McNaught, Kevin Perrett and,
until his retirement at the end of March 2003, Dr Ken Allen),
four Specialist Nurses in Health Protection, an administrator
(Julie Beech) and secretarial support.
Currently the local HPA team is in four offices in the four
former health districts of SY but it is planned, hopefully in
2003, to create a centrally located office to accommodate the
team with two smaller 'satellite' offices in Doncaster and Barnsley.
The work of the team will be to coordinate and deliver the national
health protection agenda locally, working closely in particular
with the local PCTs, especially their DPHs, local authorities
and the acute trusts.
What Is 'Health Protection'?
Health protection is a relatively new term
but describes three long-established public health functions:
Although there have been some
changes in responsibilities with the creation of the HPA, in
simple terms, the HPA will be responsible for those areas which
have been previously been well recognised as the work of CCDCs.
Contacting The HPA Locally
For the Doncaster area, the CCDC is Dr
Wendy Phillips,
the Specialist Nurse in Health Protection/TB is June
Chambers and secretarial support is provided by Angela Stephesnon.
Contact details are given below.
Dr Wendy Phillips
South Yorkshire Health Protection Service
Unit C
Medow Court
Hayland Street
off Amos Road
Sheffield
S9 1BY
Telephone 0114 242 8850 (switchboard)
Telephone 0114 242 8859 (Doncaster calls)
Secure fax 0114 242 8874
email: wendy.phillips@hpa.org.uk
June Chambers
South Yorkshire Health Protection Service
Unit C
Medow Court
Hayland Street
off Amos Road
Sheffield
S9 1BY
Telephone 0114 242 8850 (switchboard)
Telephone 0114 242 8859 (Doncaster calls)
Secure fax 0114 242 8874
email: june.chambers@hpa.org.uk
Angela Stephenson
South Yorkshire Health Protection Service
Unit C
Medow Court
Hayland Street
off Amos Road
Sheffield
S9 1BY
Telephone 0114 242 8850 (switchboard)
Telephone 0114 242 8859 (Doncaster calls)
Secure fax 0114 242 8874
email: angela.stephenson@hpa.org.uk
Contacting The HPA Out-Of-Hours
A SY wide rota of public health doctors has been established
to provide a 24/7 on call service for health protection matters.
Additionally, one of the three CCDCs is always on-call to provide
specialist advice if needed
Out-of-hours ring either the
Doncaster Royal Infirmary switchboard on 01302 366666 or the
Royal Hallamshire in Sheffield on 0114 2711900. Both switchboards
hold copies
of the on-call rota. Ask for the public health doctor on call.
Local HPA Website
A website is being developed for the local HPA team and,
when this is ready, hopefully in 2003, a link to that website
will be added to this page.
