Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1950-11-24

These figures are based on a sur
vey of the associations council on
medical service in which county
medical societies were queried,
Thomas A. Hendricks of Chicago,
secretary of the council, reported.
Local achievement of the COM
munity health councils in the last
five years include construction Of
hospitals with the aid of the hos
pital survey and construction act
(Hil-Burton act);. increasing avail
able hospital beds; developing elm
les; securing more doctors, den
lists, nurses and other needed per-
sonnet; development of fulltime To-
cal public health services; health ex-
animation of children of school and
pre-school age and correction of
their remediable health defects;
promotion of voluntary prepayment
medical care and disqualification;
provision of medical care for the
aged and chemically i'll, and meet
ing costs of medical service to fami-
lies unable to pay for hospitaliza-
ton and doctors bills, according to
Hendricks.
In some instances community
councils have been extremely help
full in cooperating with the national
mental health program. Councils
have matched government funds to
pay mental health clinic personnel
and conducted educational cam
palgns to acquaint communities
with the value and manner of op-
GRAFTON of the clinics.
And although health councils have
been organized in urban as well as
in rural areas, they have been es-
pecially important in bringing bet
ter medical care to the people in
rural communities, Hendricks said.
THE A.M.A.'s efforts to promote
organization of community health
councils to improve medical care
for long neglected rural commune
ties date back to the organization
Of the associations committee on
rural health five years ago. Since
that time it has been actively en-
gagged in coordinating the efforts of
farm groups and state and local
medical societies in rural health.
The committee is set up so that
its representatives can be reached
locally in any area. Doctors select
ed by state medical societies serve
as directors in nine regions and as
state rural health chairmen in As
states. Any organization wanting in
formation on setting up a local
health council or solving rural health
problems may contact one of these
representatives or write directly to
the ANA. rural health committee
in Chicago.
AS AN EXAMPLE of how the
council plan works, suppose men,
bers of an Ohio farm bureau wrote
the ANA. that a community needs
a doctor and does not have the ficili-
ties to attract him. The community
wants to build and staff a health
clinic with aid from the hospital
survey and construction act. What
happens?
The information is referred to
the regional director who takes the
matter up with the state rural
health chairman and the state med
ical society. The state chairman
and the medical society contact the
farm bureau, a meeting is called,
and the state chairman and repre-
sentatives of the state and local
medical societies, farm organiza-
tons and civic groups get together
at the community level to work out
the problem.
That the rural health problem is
steadily being solved through COOP
erative community efforts was gen
orally agreed at a conference on
rural health in Kansas City, Mo.
The conference brought together
more than 500 medical and lay lead
ers concerned with providing medi-
cal care to small communities.