Evening star., 1948-12-26

! ernnaent at the same time Is spend.
ing up to $75,000,oo0 q year under
the Hill Burton Act to build up com.
munity hospitals. At the same time
it is, in effect, tearing down the
community hospitals by competi.
ton, it was stated, siphoning of
nurses and other scarce personnel
and taking away a large class o1
patients.
THE solution is obvious-not to
expand the Federal system but to
extend limited aid to the community
system" the report said. This
should be done by partial assistance
in new construction for general
medical and surgical hospitals to at
least the extent that is necessary to
provide needed facilities for Federal
patients and to contract for such
care in such institutions"
For tuberculous and neuropsy-
chiatric cases (Which now occupy
so per cent of the VA beds) the
present organization Is unsatisfac-
tory, the report said. It added that
operation of separate tuberculosis
programs by Federal agencies results
in duplication and ineff1ciency and
there is imperative need for inte-
grafton.
In the case of neuropsychiatric
patients. except for VA, each major
agency has its patients In so many
different installations that it un-
able to effect the personal economies
which result from concentrating
patients in centers.
Another problem is the length of
stay in Federal hospitals, patients
with the same diagnosis remaining
two or three times as long as in
voluntary hospitals. In the same
Army and Navy hospitals civilians
stay only half as long as military
personnel, according to the report.
1t says stays could be greatly
shortened under a unified system
with proper planning. aided by the
fact that the patients would be
nearer home.
In a merger of Federal civilian
medical services there would be
drawn together VA medical person
mel employed under the act by
which such employment was lifted
out of the Civil Service, commits
stoned personnel of the Public
Health Service and all medical
professional personnel employed un-
der Civil Service by the new bu-
reau.
These groups, the report said,
would form the nucleus Of a single
new career service. Civil Service
personnel, 1t added, would be taken
into the new service in the same
way that Civil Service personnel
of the VA have been absorbed.
Members Of the commissioned
corps of the Public Health Service
would be given the option Of posi-
tions in the new service or continu-
ing in their present commissioned
status, but no new commissions
would be issued.
In addition to Chairman Voor-
hees the committee which drew up
the report includes.
DR.. Edward D. Churchill, Har-
ward, vice chairman; Dr.. Frank r.
Bradley, st. Louis: DR.. Robin c.
Buerki, University Of Pennsylvania !;
DR.. Michael E. DeBakey, Baylor Uni
versity, Houston; Goidthwaite H.
Dorr, New York, special assistant
to former Secretary Of War Slim
son:
Also, Henry P. 1sham, Chicago:
Dr. Hugh r. Leavell. Harvard: DR..
william c. Menninger, Topeka,
Kan. DR.. Hugh ]. Morgan, VAN
derbilt University. Nashville; DR..
o. H. Perry Pepper, University Of
Pennsylvania: Dr. Alfred N. Rich
ards, president. National Academy
of Sciences: Charles F. Rowley. Bos-
ton; DR.. Allen o. Whipple. New
York, and DR.. Ray Lyman Wilbur,
chancellor, Stanford University.