Evening star., 1944-04-04
|NearbyHospitaIs
LACK Contagious
Disease Wards
Three New Structures
Have No Facilities
To HundIe Cuses


To HondIe Cuses
Hospital authorities in MARYLAND
and Virginia communities adjoining
Washington admitted today there
are no facilities to care for patients
with contagious diseases, despite the
three new hospitals built within the
last year with Federal funds under
the Lanham Act.
They agreed that the need for
isolation wings exists, but they con-
tended 1t would be almost impossible
to staff them at this time, owing to
the shortage of nurses.
After ALL" asked DR.. A. Kirk
Besley, superintendent of the new
Prince Georges County Hospital In
Cheverly, Md, what did the doc
tors do with their patients before
these hospitals were built?"
The lack of facilities was brought
to light Sunday night when DR..
1sador NJ Lavine was forced to
bring 3year-old girl, seriously ill
with scarlet fever and measles, to
Gallinger Hospital and keep her
waiting in an ambulance for 30
minutes outside the door while he
convinced authorities that she
needed disqualification at once.
d. C. Officials Critical.
District health and hospital au-
thorities were frankly critical OF
Maryland and Virginia communities
for failing to set up adequate fa-
cilities for the health of their resi-
dents.
"I don't think this community
and its institutions ought to take
the rap for counties in other States"
said DR.. Daniel Seckinger, acting
superintendent at Gallinger. "The
trouble is that these counties have
grown very large, but they have
not provided adequate facilities for
the disqualification of their own
citizens.
"It should be brought to the at
tention of these counties that they
are no longer small children. They
are adults now, and 1t seems to me
they should be paying more atten-
ton to the health of their people"
Cumming Cites Act.
DR.. James G. Cumming, head of
the communicable disease section Of
the District Health Department,
pointed out the act appropriating
funds for the maintenance of Gal
linger provides that the hospital be
used for District residents.
Our hospitals are filled to the
gills," he said. why should we be
burdened with Maryland and Vir-
ginia cases?"
The three new hospitals were
built especially to relieve the grow
ling wartime burden on institutions
in the District. Besides the one in
Cheverly. the Federal Government
constructed the Suburban Hospital
lin Bethesda, ND, to serve nearby
Montgo gornery County, and the, sAr-
lngton fVa.) Hospital.
Each Of the new buildings has 100
beds. B4t only two rooms in each
hospital have been set aside for
either mental or contagious disease
patients. These rooms may be
used, however, only by patients who
contract communicable disease
after they have been admitted to
the hospital for other causes. None
of the hospitals accept patients with
contagious diseases from the out
side.
Follow Federal Plan.
The hospitals follow a master
plan developed by the Federal
Works Agency after a conference
here about year and half ago
among hospital superintendent,
medical men and representatives Of
the United States Public Health
Service.
Typical of the cases which the
new hospitals will not handle in this
list, drawn up by the staff of physi-
clans at Cheverly:
%, Acute or chronic alcoholism:
(2), chronic mental sickness; 90,
contagious diseases, and "a, incur
able conditions or sickness of long
standing.
Under present conditions, patients
with contagious diseases who require
disqualification must be taken to the
Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, if they
live in Maryland. If they live in
nearby Virginia their only possibility
is to be admitted to one of the two
rooms set aside in the Alexandria
City Hospital for communicable dis
leases.
Practice Defended.
Charles H. DabbS, superintendent
of the new Arlington Hospital, said
he believed Arlington residents were
justified in expecting some service
from hospitals in the District.
Our doctors are serving these
hospitals" he said. And, besides,
a good many of our residents are
in the armed services or are service
connected. Arlington's population,
remember, is just overflow from the
District"
DR.. Seckinger estimated that
satisfactory isolation wing or section
could be added to a hospital at a
cost of $4,000 or $4,000. j. Dewey
LuteS, superintendent of the Bethes-
da Hospital, thought it would cost
around $4,000, however.
Can't Hire Nurses.
The big problem, the nearby hos
pital chiefs maintained, would be
getting nurses. Isolation wards, they
said, require more nurses per patient
and each nurse must exercise great
er care in her duties to prevent
spreading the disease.
AT the Cheverly Hospital, which
opened about a week ago, only 10
beds are occupied-1O per cent of
capacity-although many persons
are trying to get in.
We just can't get nurses" DR..
Besley said. With the present
shortage, it would be practically i'm
possible to get them for an isolation
ward now"
If an epidemic in the county
should reach serious proportions, DR..
Besley said, the hospital couldn't
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