Evening star., 1941-02-07

of practice of medicine shall be
guided by the principle of rendering
service to humanity" and he added,
what you get for it is secondary
That's never been changed" he
told the jury of 10 men and two
women.
The defense counsel charged that
the forces behind G. H. A. were out
to destroy" the standards of private
practice.
Unsoundness Charged.
The power" behind G. H. A., he
declared, were certain funds and
foundations established by the late
Edward A. Filene of Boston, includ-
ing the Twentieth Century Fund. the
Good Will Fund, which were the
godfather and godmother" of G. H.
A. One of these funds, he said, had
paid the salary of an administrator
of G. H. A.
Group Health Association, he
charged, was economically un-
sound" it could not provide ade-
quate medical services for the prices
it charged, it interposed laymen
who knew nothing about medical
practice between the patient and
his doctor and broke down the per-
sonal relationship and confidence
which should exist between patient
and doctor.
G. H. A., he charged, was an eX-
pertinent in economic service" but.
he declared, you can't sell medical
service like baked beans off the
shelf or cigarettes over a counter
Mr.. Leahy charged that G. H. A.
was set up first secretly, that its lay
men organizers had carefully avoided
the representatives of the organized
medical profession of the District of
Columbia during preliminary stages
and then taken an attitude at times
of naughty arrogance" in trying to
force their plan on the medical
society. Ito put it over"
The defense counsel branded
$4,000 used by the Home Owners
Loan Corp. in setting up G. H. A.
as a "misappropriation" of public
funds.
Taking up two specific cases of
G. H. A. patients mentioned by the
prosecution, Mr.. Leahy insisted that
a young woman technician never
had an internal hemorrhage' as the
prosecution claimed There was no
such delay as the prosecution
charged, he said; she had been ad-
mitted to a hospital at 10 am. and
was operated on at l pm. success
fully.
In another instance, he said that
a young woman was taken to
hospital where DR.. Raymond E.
SelderS, G. H. A. surgeon, knew he
did not have privileges to operate,
that she was offered services of
other surgeons on the staff there,
but refused them She had been
given some kind of a sedative," Mr..
Leahy said, but got up, went out,
and the next day another doctor
operated on her at another hospital.
The case was definitely not an EN-
ergency case" Mr.. Leahy explained.
He added DR.. Selders resigned from
G. H. A. later.
The controversy over DR.. Mario
Scandiffio, now medical director of
G. H. A., who was expelled from the
medical society, was virtually debat-
ed by opposing counsel.
Claims designations Induced.
A prominent member Of the Dis
trict Medical Society was quoted
by Mr.. Levin as writing of the G.
H. A. doctors: 81 fear that this
group of physicians will have
visited upon them the displeasure
of the medical profession in Wash
ington, and will probably become
medical outcasts so far as we are
locally concerned" Mr.. Levin
charged that three of the original
G.. H. A. doctors, DR.. Allan Lee,
DR.. r. Stephen Hulburt and DR..
Francis x. Richardson, were Gin
duced by the defendants to abandon
Group Health Association and G.
H. A. was completely deprived of
their services"
Both DR.. Lee and DR.. Scandiffio
were tried" before members of the
Executive Committee of the medical
society, Mr.. Levin said, in trial"
Of which the transcript will be Of
fered in evidence. The transcript,
Mr.. Levin said, will disclose In.
cidentally, that this so-ealled hear.