Evening star., 1947-06-09
ANA Urged 10 Restore
Family Doctor 10
Position Of Prestige
By the Associated Press

ATLANTIC CITY, N. J., Jun.
9.-The outgoing and incoming
presidents of the American Medica
Association said today there was {
need to restore the family doctor
to a position of Importance ane
prestige
| DR.. Harrison H. Shoulders oi
| Nashville, Tenn, ANA president
told the opening session of the Or
ganization's House of Delegates
that IS per cent of the diseases
for which persons seek medical
advice can be diagnosed and treateo
properly by the family doctor.
In an address to the House OF
Delegates Immediately following
DR.. Shoulders speech, DR.. Edward
| L. Bortz of Philadelphia, ANA
president-elect, said the time was
appropriate for the association to
institute two-day general session
for family doctors during ANA con-
ventions.
t. DR.. Shoulders said there were
more nearly, if not completely
adequate" numbers of specialists to
meet the needs of the Nation. He
said only so per cent of the coun-
try's physicians were family doctors
He recommended appointment of
special committee by the AMA's
Board of Trustees to determine the
type and quantity of medical
care which the people need and /or
desire"
DR.. Bortz, asked the House OF
Delegates to recommend five men
to be known as the committee on
nursing problems. DR.. Bortz said
a questionnaire issued by the Amer
lean Surgical Association indicated
the quantity of nursing talent avail
able was 60 per cent of what it
should be, and the quality was es-
timated as down to rs per cent of
that desirable"
Plans for More Doctors.
DR.. Bortz suggested, too, that
third and fourth year medical stu
dents should be given she privi-
lege of more active participation in
the activities and privileges of the
association" He said the students
should be offered affiliate men,
berships."
Plans to give the American pub
lie many more doctors by establish
ing new medical colleges and by
increasing the training in existing
schools were reported to the assocl-
alton today by the Board OF Trus-
tees.
The United States now has 15o,-
600 physicians in active practice
20, 600 of them specialists. The
present training, including medical
school, takes about 10 years. and the
present Sc schools are filled to the
limit. These schools can graduate
little more than 5000 doctors a year
The ANA itself builds no schools
but makes itself responsible for ap-
proving nigh standards OF training
Charges have been printed since
the war that the medical profession
was not trying to increase the
number of doctors to the extent
needed for improved medical care
The trustees report today gives q
quite different picture.
New Medical Colleges.
| The new medical colleges are the
University of Washington, now CON-
pleting it's first year. and the Uni
versity OF California at Los Angeles
where construction is about to be,
gin. Also entirely new medica
schools, the trustees report says
are under consideration in Connec'
ticut, Florida, Maine, New Jersey
New York and two in Canada
Saskatchewan and British Colum
bia.
Four established American med
ical schools have extended thei
| courses from two years to the full
four years required for a medica
degree. These are the Medical Col
lege of Alabama at Birmingham
and the colleges in Utah, South Da
kota and Iowa.
| Seven thousand extra doctor,
we're graduated during the war b,
medical speed up that omitted va
cations. The medical colleges hav'
now gone back mostly to norma
speed, on the idea that better doc.
tors can be produced by the extrs
time
| Enrollments Are Up.
Nevertheless, says the report. th'
number of freshmen entering med,
ical schools this year, 5214, is abou
500 more than in any prewar years
This includes II per cent of women
which is nearly double feminine
enrollments of a few years ago
More than so per cent of the fresh.
men this year are war veterans.
| The trustees reported that volun-
tary medical care, the system advo-
Gated by the ANA in place Of en-
forced, State medical insurance anc
care, now has an enrolment OF
about 5000, ,000 This is nearly dou-
BILE the number of persons enrolled
a year ago.
Forty-seven States and the Dis
trict. of Columbia, Hawaii and Porto
Rico have either plans in operation
or under development.