Enthusiastic Support for Medical School

              TEN A THE SHREVEPORT JOURNAL, SHREVEPC
Shreveport Journal
Published at 222 Lake St., Shreveport, La., 71102
Founded January 7, 1895 Published Every Afternoon Except Sunday
JOURNAL PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC.
DOUGLAS F. ATTAWAY, President and Publisher
T. R. GRAFTON, Vice President S. BERTON HEARD, Treasurer
GEORGE W. SHANNON, Editor and Secretary JACK F. CLARK, Managing Editor
DOUGLAS ATTAWAY, Publisher 1922-1957
Entered Shreveport, Louisiana, Post Office as Second Class Matter Under Act of March 3, 1879
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No Shreveport Journal Stockholder Owns Stock in Any Other Shreveport Newspaper
Enthusiastic Support for Medical School
A high degree of enthusiasm for pro-ceeding
with plans for the new state medi-cal
school marked the meeting of state
officials with members of the Shreveport
Chamber of Commerce and the Shreve-port
Medical Society and their guests Mon-day
evening. It has been years since a
state undertaking, designated for this city,
has won such general approval in an
initial stage as has the medical school.
Gov. John J. McKeithen voiced the
opinion not only of our community but
also of numerous others when he said: "It
is time for us to start building this school.
We've got to build it, and it must and
shall be here in Shreveport."
Louisiana is short of doctors now, and
the need, health authorities say, will be
critical within 10 years. Louisiana State
University School of Medicine and Tu-lane
University College of Medicine are
admitting all the students they have room
for at present. If Louisiana were not to
make provision for new facilities, schools
in other states would draw more young
men and women from Louisiana, and on
completion of their training a high per-centage
of the doctors would remain in
those states to practice.
In a confident tone Governor Mc-
Keithen discussed financing the school.
He pledged support to a bill which Rep.
J. Bennett Johnston Jr. of Shreveport
will introduce in the next legislative ses-sion
to authorize a bond issue of $5 mil-lion
backed by 0.53 per cent of the state
ad valorem tax which is unallocated now.
This bond issue would be spent over the
next five years, and it would be followed
by a similar bond issue spread over a five-year
period. For each dollar the state in-vests
two dollars can be obtained in
matching funds from the federal govern-ment.
Dr. William Frye, chancellor of the
LSU Medical School, estimated that a
basic science building, costing about $10
million, will be needed, and that it will
take about two years to erect. Architec-tural
planning and curriculum planning
will require about a year, he said. Then
he emphasized the importance of assem-bling
a top flight staff. But still he pre-dicted
that the school will b ready to
admit its first class by 1970 or perhaps
even sooner.
The usual problems of establishing a
medical school can be met with greater
assurance in Shreveport, because of ex-isting
medical facilities and the caliber
and the spirit of the medical profession
here. Actually, progress should be made
at a better than average rate. Confederate
Memorial Medical Center already is
equivalent to high grade university hos-pitals.
It serves as a general and special-ized
treatment center and also as a teach-ing
hospital. Shreveport physicians in-clude
men experienced in research and
teaching. Both general practitioners and
specialists have earned honors. The school
is guaranteed their full cooperation.
Another good omen for the school is
the interest being shown by medical
groups in the neighboring states. They
are aware that the institution in time will
contribute to the progress of health serv-ices
in their areas as well as those of
Louisiana.
With this school functioning as ex-pected,
Shreveport will take a position in
the mainstream of Southern medical
progress. No time should be wasted in at-taining
that goal.