Arizona sun., 1946-10-25
San Francisco Hospitals Denied To Negro Doctors
BY MASON ROBERTSON


curious thing to observe when it
appears in the minds of so-called
sane men. But it has distinction
all its own when it appears in the
minds and hearts of men who are
professionally scientific in their
thinking and who boast of being
disciples of fact and logic in their
approach to life.
For instance, here in San Fran
cisco, the medical big-wigS insist
that there is no prejudice being
practiced against Negro physicians.
And they could probably back up
this claim with a clean record as
far as any formal written policy
is concerned.
But record or n record-no Ne
gro doctor can practice in any San
Francisco's major hospitals. No
Negro doctor can operate.
They can enter patients in most
hospitals, but they cannot treat
the patients once they are en-
tered. Staff doctors do that.
No Negroes are on any San
Francisco hospital staffs.
When you start to investigate
things like that, everyone assures
you that prejudice has nothing to
do with it. In fact, some doctors
grow indignant at the very
thought.
Discrimination, they tell you,
has nothing to do with the case at
all.
Their explanation is something
like this:
Gall hospitals in San Francisco
have their own staffs- s-doctors who
either work full time in the hospi-
tai or are associate members Of the
staff who work in and out of the
hospitals. Almost all the hospitals
are private. So the choice of staff
members is up to the doctors them
selves.
Case In Point
"In the case of the City and
County hospital and in the case
of the university hospitals of
which are supported in part or on
the whole by public funds-the
staffs are made up Of teachrs from
the University of California or
Stamford who use the hospitals and
patients in connection with their
lcurS.
$50 a Negro doctor would have
to be either an instructor at one
of the two universities or be in
vited to join the staff of a private
hospital in order to work in one.
Just because no Negroes ARE in
this category means nothing. There
are scores of white doctors in ex-
actlv the same position {. :"
This would clear everything up
nicely, unlsS you know:
That one Negro doctor in San
Francisco not only has medical
degree but also a degree as doc
tor of philosophy and that he is
graduate of the University of Cali
fornia with several years experi-
ence teaching in a Grade A Negro
medical college and that he is also
recognized as one of the finest
diagnosticians in the city.
This doctor. has tried in every
possible way to obtain an ap-
pointment rs visiting physician
on the staff of the county hos
pital. He has also tried to obtain
a post as a teacher at Stanford
or the University Of California
hOsnitals.
Always he is told that he is
eminently quaIifid but that the
hOsnitalS are not taking on any
additional doctors just at this
time"
"Come bac kin two years."
they tell him.
Stanford hospital, meanwhile is
opening up it's fifth floor in an ex-
pansion program and aopointing
new doctors to the visiting staff.
All the hospitals, in fact rgularly
appoint ne wdoctors to their staffs-
All this leaves San Francisco's
Negro doctors faced iwth one Of
two choices in the matter of treat
ing their seriously i'll patients:
They can either treat the pa
tients at hOm, at great incOn-
venience to the doctor and with
limited quipment, or they can
turn them over to a white doc
tor on the staff of one of the hos
pitals. This latter alternative de-
stroys the patient-doctor rela-
tiOnShip and compels the patient
to trust himself to q strange ply
Sician.
And it means great financial loss
to the Negro doctor who thereby
loses all his operational cases as
we'll as diagnostic which require
disqualification.
90. Of course, there's no pre-
judice connected with all this !. :"
Nevertheless, Negro doctors
claim to have been offered in pri-
vate conversations, segr e G d
Negro hospitals, and again, wings
in white hospitals-whicn they've
refused on the ground that it would
compromise the fundamental rights
Of Negro patients as well as doc
tors-that Segregated medicine is
bad medicine.
g. of course theirs no pre-
judice in all this. Every doctor is
crib - Annn~yC nw1G