Evening star., 1952-04-02

Staff and field workers of the pub
lie agencies have found they can.
not do the jobs assigned to them
without close cooperation with
their opposite numbers in neigh
boring Jurisdictions. Admittedly
this cooperation is mostly on q
purely personal basis. The ques-
tion is whether it is adequate tc
achieve what seems to be the goa
of integration enthusiastic pool
ing of community resources and
facilities to provide common
standards of service throughout
the Metropolitan Area.
So far as government services
are concerned, the answer is no
After public transportation, the
services most often mentioned as
standing in the need of integra-
ton are health, welfare and pub
lie protection services, which in
clude fire, police and civil defense
1t might be helpful to take each
of these up separately from an
area point of view.
HEALTH.
There is probably no field OF
community service where the need
for area coordination is greater
There is no argument about the
fact that the general health of a
community is indivisible. Disease
lis no respecter of political bound
aries. Equally obvious is the fact
that most of the public and pri-
lvate health facilities Of the area
are concentrated inside the Dis
trict. '
With certain exceptions. the
lpublic facilities Of the District
might just as well not exist, so fal
las most suburban residents are
leoncerned. 4
The District has its Health De-
tpartment. The adjoining countie:
and independent cities have theirs
In general, the health services oi
the suburban areas are oriented
not toward the District, as logic
would suggest. but toward tht
States, as political consideration.
demand.
On the positive side of the
ledger one can cite the Inter.
state Commission on Control oi
the Potomac River Basin, which
is doing good work in pollution
control on an educational anc
advisory basis, and an outfit sci
up some years ago known as thu
Metropolitan Health Officers AS.
sociation.
The association is made up o1
top health officials from Wash.
ington and the surrounding coun.
ties in Maryland and Virginia
District Health Officer DAME
Seckinger is the chairman. Meet.
ling at irregular intervals, it ha.
approached some of the problem.
raised by the areas divided
health jurisdictions.
Long Way to Go.
The association has made prog.
ress toward standardization ol
local health regulations, such a!
those covering quarantine o.
communicable diseases. It still
has a long way to go. In the cas-
lof regulations setting standard.
for milk purity, for example, there
lis no uniformity throughout the
area. The reasons are compli.
Gated, but the result is simple.
Standards for the District arr
stricter than those of the sub.
urban counties. It is matter ol
periodic embarrassment for al
concerned to have to defend tn
proposition that milk considered
safe for babies on one side of 9
street may not be considered
safe for babies on the other side
The Health Officers Association
has even made some limited
progress toward the pooling o.
area health facilities. Until re.
Gently, q suburban resident vir.
tually mad to collapse on ths
streets Of Washington before hi
could be taken to a public hospita
inside the District. Now, all thl
surrounding counties have entered
into an agreement with the Dis.
trict for treatment of acute polio
cases in Children's or Gallingel
Hospitals. In the case of some
counties the District has agreed
to take on a small number O.
other communicable disease case
at the going daily rate. Other
Ihave contracts with private hos
lpitals in the District for hospitali
zation Of persons on public as
sistance rolls.
The fact remains, however, tina
. some suburban dwellers receive .
few Of the public health benefit
normally available to residents o
a large city. There are areas il
which a person who comes dowl
with smallpox or meningitis, TO
+. example, has no public hospital o
tany kind open to him. What car,
such patients get. they get a
home
Money a Controlling Factor.
AS in all area problems, tn
: question Of public health service
comes down to a question o
r money. The District does no
have-and never will have unde
!. the present financial setup-th
4 facilities required to service tn
whole Metropolitan Area. From
j the point Of view Of the individua
Taxpayer. he might get bette
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