Evening star., 1943-03-29
0ne-Ihird Of Nation 5
Doctors Now SERVING
In Armed Forces
owl Survey Finds Health
Situation Good, but Warns
1t Will Become Worse
By the Associated Press.

II VIII DeCOme VOrSS
By the Associated Press.
About one-third of the Nations
doctors in full time practice are now
in the armed services, the Office OF
War information said today IN q
warning that the medical situation
''as a whole is not now out of con-
troll, but unless remedial steps are
taken soon it viii grow progressively
worse"
The OWL said that in too many
cases physicians were recruited for
the armed services without sufficient
regard for the welfare of the civilian
population. It added:
There are, however, enough doc
tors remaining in private practice to
give adequate care to the civilian
population, provided they can be
properly. distributed and according
to special abilities"
10000 in Armed Forces.
4, The owl said doctors now IN the
armed services total between 10000
and $4,000 and as the additional
physicians are called to military
services doctors in critical areas
many of them elderly-may. sue
cumb to exhaustion from overwork." !"
The Owl also made these obser-
vations:
I'm some communities local medi-
cal groups have resisted attempts to
relocate outside doctors in their
locality.
"A number of doctors questioned
were against allowing refugee ply
sicians to practice in their COM
munities despite the obvious need.
THE system in use at present to
apportion doctors between the
armed forces and the civilian popu-
lation is inadequate.
"A quota was set in each State
for the recruiting of doctors and
the States were not supposed to go
beyond those quotas. In many cases
they did"
Explaining the scope of its report,
the Owl said:
"OWI representatives Travelled
through the South, the Midwest, the
West, the Eastern Seaboard-ln
three distinct types of communi-
ties: Farming regions, where health
problems existing for years have
been intensified; small towns that
have mushroomed overnight into
close-packed centers; large cities
where congestion has been aggra-
waited by war activity.
Doctors Overworked.
although there are areas crltl-
cally in need of doctors, SO far the
health of the Nation as whole has
not been seriously impaired, most
of them are working practically all
the time and in total disregard OF
their own health.
THE number of communities
critically in need of doctors is not
great. Those communities in need
are. however, among those most
vital to our war program.
THE voluntary relocation OF ply
sicians has proved extremely diff
cult, and has not resulted in a
solution to the problem.
Luxury medicine, to which some
Americans have become accustomed,
Is out for the duration.
d, Medical shortages are not due in
all cases to the war. For instance
many rural areas have never had
sufficient number of doctors"
Emphasizing the difficulties of re-
locating doctors to areas in need,
the Owl said doctors who already
had gone to war sometimes, "and
quite UNDERSTANDABLE, show a def
mite antipathy to permitting outside
doctors to take over their practice" "
Points to Petition.
This antipathy, the Owl said, was
illustrated by a petition from mem
bers of a county medical society in a
Southern State who now are in the
armed forces:
1--WE having abandoned our
homes and practices for service in
the armed forces of our country
believe that we have the right to
demand protection of our practices,
and do therefore petition that any
doctor under As years of age NOV
ing into - county Immediately
be put on the available list and
quickly inducted into the service
The Owl said:
This system. whereby a physician
Is put on the available list and quick
" inducted into the services after be-
ing declared not essential to his COM
nnunity by the procurement and as
signment service, is one method for
obtaining doctors for the Army and
Navy.
1T is a system which, in COM
bination with other factors, has re-
suited in too many doctors being
taken from some sections and not
enough from Others"
ManpOwer Pool.
"On April 81, 1942, the War Man.
power Commission announced that
the Procurement Assignment Service