The Miami times. [volume] (Miami, Fla.) 1923-current, 1949-01-01

ong suspected but never before as
closed. The Hoover COMMISSION
points out that the Veterans Ad-
ministration, the Army, Navy, AIR
Force and Public Health Service
are making several competitive de-
mands upon our medical resources
with little, if any, regard for what
other agencies are doing. That fact
alone is sufficient to indicate ex'
pensive duplication of hospitals ana
failure to utilize medical talent to
the best advantage. The Hoover
task force" offers ample detail to
indicate that the waste involved
exists in fact as we'll as in theory.
In New York, for example, four
different Federal agencies maintain
hospitals with capacity for 1857
patients, although 1888 of these
beds are in temporary structures.
When the survey was made those
hospitals had only $3.50 patients.
Yet the VA is building a 98l bed
hospital in Brooklyn, and the Army,
Navy and VA together are planning
four additional hospitals with
combined capacity of $500 beds.
Should these plans be carried
through, the task force report indi-
Gates, Federal hospitals in New
York will have 1885 beds in perma-
nent plants, which is about twice the
present patient load About so per
cent Of that patient load, moreover,
is made up Of the dependents of men
entitled to hospital care and of vet
Grams with nOn-serVice connected
disabilities whose right to hospital
cation at public expense is tenuOus
under the existing law.
Thus viewed comprehensively the
picture suggests shocking irrespon-
sibility. Congress and the Admins
tration have been authorizing hos
pitfalls and appropriating funds as if
they had four health problems in
stead of one. A sailor with T. r..
however, requires treatment no diff
ferent from that given a soldier, a
veteran or a civilian with the same
disease. The country simply can
not afford to build up four or five
elaborate hospital systems to give
the same service to different groups
of ailing people. Perhaps the height
of absurdity is reached in the Nays
new $14, 10000 cancer hospital now
under construction. Surely cancer
is not peculiarly a naval disease.
Since a cancer patient requiring
deep radiation therapy can rarely
be of further military value, as the
task force points out, the Navy
seems to be inexcusably invading
the general field Of hospital treat.
ment.
These facts cry out for unifica.
ton of medical facilities operated by
the government. The services and
the Veterans Administration may
fight against any interference with
their costly and wasteful separate
hospital systems, but in the opinion
of the task force the national inter.
est points directly toward one nation
al health agency. AS a matter of
fact, the top medical officers Of the
Army and the Navy both said this
morning that they did not favor the
merging Of their medical operations
with those Of government agencies.
However. 1t is a rare person, who
in either military or civilian life.
would be in favor of a proposal
which would cut down their own
power or scope Of authority. We
fully agree with the opinion of the
task force. 1t will be difficult, of
course, to bring together hospital
systems created by different agen.
cies and operated according to vary.
ing rules and traditions. Yet that
Is minor compared to the
waste of the present system.
The National Bureau of Fealth
suggested to the Hoover Commission
by the task force would become q
major division of the proposed de-
partment of health. education and
security. It would include a medical
care division in charge Of Federal
hospitals. a public health division
which would give much greater en-
phasis to preventive measures, and