Last Friday, the Baltimore City Health Department hosted leaders from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, including Acting Secretary Eric Hargan and Surgeon General Jerome Adams. During the course of their visit, we brought up many issues that are important to us, including providing urgent, additional funding to stem the opioid epidemicprotecting Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, and ensuring best available science and evidenced-based practices.

I was proud to showcase the incredible work done by our employees every single day to protect health and improve well-being in Baltimore City. It was also an important opportunity to speak directly to our federal leaders and articulate the needs of frontline staff. Here in Maryland, we have not seen any new federal resources since President Trump’s public health emergency declaration in October. I shared with Acting Secretary Hargan and his team our “three-pillar strategy” for combatting the opioid epidemic – saving lives with naloxone, increasing access to treatment, and fighting stigma/preventing overdose. The Acting Secretary and his team have heard our concerns, and I hope they will consider the experiences of those of us on the frontlines and provide funding directly to local jurisdictions like ours. We do a lot with very little and we know what works – we just need adequate resources to address this crisis. (You can read coverage of the visit in the Daily RecordBaltimore Business Journal, and WBAL-TV.)

In the coming weeks and months, I look forward to following up with HHS Leadership about my concerns and requests. In the meantime, I am so proud of my team for representing the best of public health and public service.

Sincerely,

Leana Wen, M.D., M.Sc.

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