Medical Training Should Expand

              SIX A THE SHREVEPORT JOURNAL, SHREV
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
Member of the Associated Press Telephone 424-0373
No Shreveport Journal Stockholder Owns Stock in Any Other Shreveport Newspaper
Medical Training Should Expand
At the House Appropriations Com-mittee
hearing in Baton Rouge Tuesday
residents of a large number of commu-nities
in northern and northwestern Lou-isiana
will join delegations from the
Shreveport Chamber of Commerce, the
Shreveport Medical Society and the Bos-sier
Chamber of Commerce in support of
the proposal to establish a medical school
in our city.
Accredited medical training, offered
in Shreveport, would be of the utmost
value to the health of the entire north-ern
half of the state. It would greatly
strengthen the state's position in further-ing
the health sciences. This proposition
is one of the most important moves to be
considered in professional training in
Louisiana in many a year.
Congress in 1963 passed the Public
Health Service Act, authorizing a three-year
medical and dental education pro-gram.
The measure provided $105 mil-lion
in matching funds to establish new
medical schools, $35 million in matching
funds to replace or renovate existing
teaching facilities and $614 million to be
loaned to students of medicine, dentistry,
osteo'pathy and optometry.
Now pending in Congress is H. R.
7806 which would extend the 1963 law
and liberalize certain provisions. Passage
of the bill is expected without significant
changes in the wording.
The nation's medical school capacity,
according to the latest survey, needs to
be increased by 50 per cent. States which
expand their training facilities will nat-urally
stand the best chance to retain
permanently a high percentage of the
graduates.
Shreveport, being the second largest
city in Louisiana, can supply the clinical
material necessary for the training of
physicians. An impressive number of es-sentials
for a medical school already exist
in the Confederate Memorial Medical
Center with its residencies and intern-ships.
The school could draw on the serv-ices
of specialists and family physicians
of the Shreveport area just as the Medical
Center does.
Plans for medical training have to be
carefully prepared. If the state is to ex-pand
training facilities to meet growing
needs, the matter should not be post-poned.