Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-01-19
WPB Hospital
Plan Faces Fight
In Alexandria
City Council and
Board to Appeal
Denial of Addition
BY PAT JONES.

The first concerted fight in the
local hospital expansion program
WAS seen today in a statement from
Robert G. Whitton, administrator
of Alexandria Hospital, that an APP
peal to block War Production Board
plans denying that institution ex-
banded facilities will be taken ito
the highest authority"
Mr.. Whitton announced that a
Joint meeting of the Alexandria City
Council and the Alexandria Hospital
Board will be held at $3.50 pm. to-
morrow to lay plans for what he said
would mean "a fight to the finish"
1--WE can't continue to operate on
the present basis" the administra-
tor declared. IF any hospital needs
assistance, this hospital is the one.
The people of Alexandria are not 60
ing to take this lying down. If the
War Production Board wants to see
indignation, it will see it from u.s.
Declares Facts Were Ignored.
Mr. Whitton charged that the
WPB consultants, Everett w. Jones
and N. F. Macdonald, both of whom,
he said, would be invited to tomor-
rows meeting, had ignored the
facts entirely"
He also pointed out that the re-
port made, by Mr.. Jones yesterday
to Maury Maverick, director of the
WPB Governmental Division, rec
ommending that the Alexandria
Hospital be denied the proposed
100-be6 expansion set up by Federal
Works Agency planners, was con-
trary to a previous report.
MIR. Whitton referred to a note
attached to report submitted at
the recent Senate District Commit
tee hearing on the hospital program
which described the Alexandria in
stitution as terribly crowded"
He also complained that Alexan-
dria had been left out of discussions
concerning plans to expand hospital
facilities in the Metropolitan Area
and had not been invited to sit in
on meetings which vitality con-
cerned it.
I'VE refuse to take the consultants'
recommendations under such cir
cumstances," he said.
Mr. Whitton reported that Alex
andria is "vitally" interested in OBJ
tanning new facilities for its hos
pital, which he described as a nom
profit community organization, and
that it had contributed 100 tons of
steel toward new construction.
Situation Described as Bad.
Original FWA plans, prepared on
advice of the United States Public |
Health Service, called for a 100-bed !
addition at Alexandria as part of a
550-bed expansion for the Virginia
Maryland area. This program, Mr..
Whitton said. was adequate and
would have relieved "a very bad sit
uation."
In discussion Of bed average on
a basis of estimated population fig
ures. the superintendent accused the
WPB of neglecting the Virginia and
Maryland areas.
Under present plans, he pointed
out, Maryland will be given new
l00-bed hospitals at Bethesda and
Cheverly. These, coupled with 146
beds now in use there, will give the
areas estimated population of 300
900 an average of IT beds per 1000
persons.
In the Alexandria Arlington area
the situation is worse, he said. The
only available beds are the 102 in
use at the Alexandria Hospital, and
the superintendent reported that
there is no room to add more at
that institution unless they are
placed in the corridors.
Hospital Already Crowded.
He reported that six-bed wards
there now have eight beds each, that
beds have been installed in con-
verted bathrooms and that nurses
rest rooms have been eliminated.
According to yesterdays WPB re-
port, 100-bed hospital will be con-
structed in Arlington County This
addition, plus those in Alexandria,
will give the area 202 beds to serve
an estimated population Of 2l5,000,
or 09 beds per 1000 persons.
In his report yesterday, Mr.. Jones
explained that the Arlington County
hospital was recommended instead
of additions in Alexandria because
Arlington, with no present hospital
facilities, must have hospital
He added that the Arlington insti-
tuition would relieve that at Alex
sndria of 7 to 10 patients per day
and that that should give Alexandria
reasonably good hospital service"