The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1941-12-04

your SICK. 1IlGIc lllSy WOu1O lie,
white and black, old and young,
rich and poor, convalescing and
dying, your neighbors, your rela-
tives, and friends, all brought to-
gether in common bondage to
that one misfortune of life that
sooner or later knocks at every
door. Or, to see this same picture
from another angle: If two out of
every three people in West JEFF
ferson were sick in bed today, on
ly one-third of the town on its
feet, you would have the equiva-
lent, numerically, of your coun-
tvs everyday problem of sick
ness.
But this is not the whole prob
lem. It does not include the i'm
paired; it includes only the in
capacitated. The ambulatory or
walking patients who visit the
doctors offices and the out-pa-
tient department of the hospitals
are not represented in the long
pavilion. Most of the people with
tuberculosis, cancer, unrepaired
injuries following childbirth, high
blood pressure, heart disease,
hernias, and many other preva-
lent conditions that lower vital
efficiency and rob life Of its zest
I are dragging around on their feet.
And again, it does not include the
33 per cent of selectees that the
draft boards are finding so ply
sically defective as not to be able
to bear arms in defense of their
country.
Now of the SIS bedridden or in
capacitated, 10 per cent, or at least
so patients, are so seriously i'll as
to need hospital care And to these
we have to add Is more, or one
and one-fourth hospital patients
per thousand of the population,
that need institutional treatment,
that is, cases of tuberculosis,
heart disease, high blood pres
sure, thyroid conditions, hernias,
conditions that seriously disable
and can only be treated in a hos
pital but which for the most part
do not impose complete incapaci-
tation or bedridden illness. So al
together you have in this county
at the average time rs people so
seriously i'll, in bed or dragging
about on their feet, as to need
hospital care. Such in general out
line is your problem of sickness.
Your Inadequate Medical Service
Your medical services for deal
ing with this problem are excep-
tionally limited. Adequate and
modern care for the sick depend
upon three closely related, mu-
tually dependent agencies, to-wit,
physicians, h o spit a l facilities,
trained assistants, that is, nurses
and technicians. Until the open
ing of this hospital your county
has had but one of the three
necessary parts Of an adequate
medical service, namely, physi-
clans. Moreover, your supply of
physicians has been and is eXcep-
tionally limited and is rapidly be-
coming still more limited, as the
facts of the situation clearly dis
close.
What are the facts? In the
United States there is one ply
stefan for every Isl people; in
North Carolina one physician for
every 1856 people; in Ashe coun-
ty one physician for $3.50 people.
In 1925, Ashe county had fourteen
doctors; today but seven. Further
more, of your seven physicians,
three are over seventy years of
age. Only one is under fifty.
this limited and dWind-
ling supply of physicians, we have
to consider the fact that your sick
are scattered over a large area
of 427 square miles and that some
sections of this large mountain
Gus area, especially in winter, are
not easily accessible.
Your Need for a Local Hospital
Now let us see how local hos
pitaI would relieve this condi-
ton. Yes, I said local hospital,
and use the word local with en-
phasis and deliberation, because
only a local hospital, not a hos
pital at Elkin, Wilkesboro, Boone
or Bristol, will answer your needs,
and so I address myself to that
proposition-the value and neces-
sity of a local hospital for Ashe
county.
First, a local hospital, and only