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February 8, 2006 - Governor Mitt Romney asked the Legislature yesterday to spend $36.5 million to buy thousands of hospital beds, breathing machines, and doses of medication to help make Massachusetts ready if a long-feared epidemic of influenza sweeps the globe.

The medical hardware and drugs would be stockpiled in state facilities and parceled out to hospitals and doctors if a wave of respiratory illness overwhelmed existing hospital services. More than 5,000 sophisticated medical cots would be made available in hospital lobbies, conference rooms, and cafeterias, with 2,000 ventilators enlisted to sustain the breathing of wheezing patients.

The governor's plan, announced at a statewide summit of physicians, emergency workers, and public-health authorities, emerges as efforts intensify to fight a potential worldwide epidemic of avian influenza. Disease specialists warn that such an epidemic, known as a pandemic, could sicken 90 million Americans and kill 2 million of them.

''We have to do everything within our power to take action to prevent the kind of devastation -- to the extent humanly possible -- that would flow from a pandemic," the governor told an audience of about 400 at the Boston Convention and Exposition Center.

Romney's proposal drew a mixed response from leading public-health figures as well as prominent legislators who set the Beacon Hill agenda on healthcare issues.

State Senator Richard T. Moore, chairman of the Committee on Health Care Financing, said Romney's plan is a good start but questioned whether hospitals already facing federal budget cuts could be expected to cope with an influx of flu patients. A Bush administration budget plan released Monday would cut Medicare payments to Massachusetts hospitals by $213 million over five years.

''If hospitals are having problems dealing with the usual Friday night traffic jam of patients, I don't know whether what the governor is proposing will be enough," said Moore, a Democrat from Uxbridge.

The governor's budget request came on the same day that Mike Leavitt, the US secretary of Health and Human Services, announced that his agency is releasing $2 million to Massachusetts for pandemic preparations. In November President Bush unveiled a campaign to fortify the nation against a flu crisis that included $350 million for state and local governments.

The bulk of the federal money and proposed state spending -- about $30 million -- would be used to buy the sophisticated medical cots, ventilators, and associated equipment.

About $3.7 million would go toward purchasing medication to prevent and treat the flu, with enough pills for prevention in 24,000 people and treatment in 20,000. The medication would be directed to healthcare workers, emergency workers, and the first wave of patients infected with a dangerous strain of flu, in order to keep it from spreading.

An additional $3.7 million would purchase flu drugs, food, and other supplies for 28 state-run hospitals, jails, and other facilities.

Romney would also invest about $700,000 in the state laboratory in Jamaica Plain, allowing it to hire more specialists and perform more tests, to more quickly detect an epidemic.

A spokeswoman for the governor said Romney is confident the state has enough money in its reserves to pay for the flu preparations. But state Representative Peter J. Koutoujian, House chairman of the Joint Committee on Public Health, said it would be a challenge to find money for the plan.

Koutoujian, a Waltham Democrat, said he endorses the idea of making preparations for a pandemic but said those efforts cannot happen in a vacuum.

''We need to focus more monies on public health in general," Koutoujian said. ''Even if we have all the ventilators, all the beds, if we don't have the ability to get people to the proper places, it's wasted money."

John Auerbach, executive director of the Boston Public Health Commission, expressed dismay that the budget request contained no money to assist cities and towns as they draft their own strategies for dealing with a pandemic. Auerbach said local health boards need money to monitor disease clusters, handle patient quarantines, and make sure the sick are treated.

''The thing that is disturbing is that there's a simultaneous identification of the importance of planning at the local level, but a lack of funding to make that happen," Auerbach said.

The state's public health commissioner, Paul Cote, acknowledged the dearth of money for local governments and made no commitment that will change in the future.

''This is the beginning," he said. ''It doesn't preclude the idea there will be additional funds available, but it doesn't promise there will be additional funds."

Leavitt, the nation's top health official, sketched a dire scenario if a flu pandemic arrives on US shores, recalling the suffering wrought by a flu virus that killed millions around the world in 1918.

But he admonished the doctors and government officials convened for the summit not to rely on federal help.

''Any community that fails to prepare and does so with the expectation that the federal government will come to the rescue will be tragically wrong," Leavitt said.

Stephen Smith can be reached at stsmith@globe.com. 

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