Six years have already passed since the birth of the French Public Health Agency
Created by ordinance n. 2016-462 of 14 April 2016 and governed by decree no. 2016-523 of 27 April 2016, this public state institution of an administrative nature, placed under the supervision of the Minister of Health, has the missions of epidemiological observation and monitoring of the health status of populations, supervision of health risks, health promotion and health risk reduction, prevention and health education, preparing for and responding to health threats, alarms and crises and launching health alerts.
There is still room for improvement so that the agency rhymes with consistency
Back in 2008, the Public Policy Modernization Council announced a first grouping of national health agencies.
The National Public Health Agency replaced the Institute for Health Monitoring, the National Institute for Prevention and Health Education, and the Institute for Health Emergency Preparedness and Response to form a whole that includes the functions of these three organizations since May 2016. The report of the Court of Mayors published on 12 December 2022 recalls the complexity of this merger. He sees this as a progressive phenomenon that manifests itself in the budget and real estate plans as well as at the very heart of the Agency’s missions.
The Court of Auditors underlines the key role played by French public health during the covid-19 crisis regarding the establishment and management of strategic stocks and vaccination campaigns. Formulates an overall positive assessment of the Agency’s ability to react to the pandemic, with however a caveat regarding the health reserve, which was unable to meet the needs related to the health crisis in terms of personnel.
However, the positive but incomplete role of the Agency’s Scientific Council calls into question its absence during the covid-19 crisis. If this body, which is not made up of scientific personnel from Public Health France but includes many international personalities, has played an effective role up until the health crisis,…
