Evening star., 1947-03-25
Medical Society
Asks Survey Of
D. t. Doctors
Requests USPHS Aid
In Postwar Appraisal
Of Needs, Service
" Thomas 6. Buchnnon

TIL United States Public Health
Service has been requested by the
District Medical Society to make
the first postwar survey OF the local
medical profession.
The survey will seek to determine
whether the Districts medical needs
are effectively served by the num-
ber Of doctors now in practice mere.
Theodore Wiprud, secretary OF
the medical society, said the or
ganization's Executive Board last
night authorized him to ask USPHS
aid in conducting the survey.
A Public Health Service spokes-
man already has indicated the
agency would be willing to lend its
services, Mr.. Wiprud revealed.
The proposed inventory of the
city's physicians will be the first
officially conducted here since 1943.
At Low Point in War.
Three surveys were made during
the war by the USPHS and the
District Procurement and Assign
ment Service for Physicians, in CO.
operation with the District Medical
Society and the Medico-C -Chirurglcal
Society.
These wartime surveys warned
that because of the large number OF
doctors who were called into mill
tary service, "the number OF ef-
fective physicians was rapidly ap-
preaching the lowest safe limit"
DR.. Paul F. Dickens, District
chairman of the Procurement and
Assignment Service, which allocated
physicians to the armed forces, said
the lowest point of doctor service
reached here during the war was one
physician for 927 District residents.
A 1e43 survey showed that the
patient load for doctors still serving
the civilian population in Wash
ington had increased from IS to 25
per cent since before the war. The
average weekly patient load was
reported to be from 1872 to IA, near
maximum.
Cases Turned Away.
Only minimum essential service
could be provided in most cases, and
A per cent of local doctors said
they were turning away at least one
request for medical care a week.
The picture has changed COM
pletely since the last statistics were
compiled, however, it was pointed
out by Mr. Wiprud. He estimated
there were at least $50 more doctors
here now than before the war.
Mr. Wiprud's statement was sub
stantiated by figures released by
Paul Foley, assistant secretary of
the Commission on Licensure, on the
number of new applications for
doctors licenses here since before
the war
He said there were 113 applications
in 1910, 1O2 in 1941, 100 in 1912, 104
in 1943, 70 in 1914, 1879 in 1945 and
338 in 1916. Not all these doctors
have remained in regular civilian
practice in the District, and many
veteran doctors have died or retired.
But the sharp rise in applications
in 1856 was regarded as indicative
of a considerable postwar gain in
the local medical profession. Doc
tors returning from military service
who had previously practiced medi-
cine here were not included in Mr..
Foley,s figures.
Reasons for Increase.
Mr.. Foley gave two reasons for
the increase:
/. Many doctors who came here
during the war for duties in the
Pentagon, Walter Reed, Bethesda
Naval Hospital and other service in
stltutions decided to return and set
up in practice in the District.
2. Doctors from other sections of
the country have decided that the
District population, being nom
industrial. is more stable econom-
ically than that of most cities.
Whatever the reasons for the
change in Washingtons physician
service, the District Medical Society
feels that now is the time to take
stock, according to Mr.. Wiprud. The
society's own applications for men,
bership have taken a sharp upswing
recently, he observed, from an aver
age of 60 during the war years to
140 in 1916 and IS already this year.
The society is interested, he said,
not only in the number of doctors
here and the average number of
patients they serve, but in the fields
in which they specialize. This in
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