Edwards Will See Human Needs at Confederate Medical Center

              Page 6-A, Monday, September 11, 1972
Edwards Will See Human Needs
At Confederate Medical Center
Gov. Edwin W. E d w a r d s is
scheduled to visit Shreveport today
and will tour Confederate Memo-rial
Medical Center.
The governor, during the first
months of his administration has
shown himself to be a friend to the
p e o p l e of Northwest Louisiana,
particularly through his efforts to
gain four-year status for Louisiana
State University in Shreveport.
The governor's interest in that
project was a part of the human
needs program which he has cham-pioned.
In the instance of LSU-Shreveport
his actions have bene-fited
the young people of this area
and guaranteed equal educational
opportunities to the citizenry of
Northwest Louisiana.
Gov. Edwards today will view
m o t h e r great opportunity to
serve the human needs of this state.
He will see a h o s p i t a l in
desperate need of some $12 million
in renovation, now. This is not
needed to bring elaborate new
facilities to the hospital, but rather
to provide the minimum in hospital
care.
In order to gain this $12 million
the hospital board is seeking only
$4.5 million in state funds. Match-ing
funds from federal programs
will provide the rest if the state
will produce the first $4.5 million.
That money will be used to
air-condition the hospital, to pro-vide
a d e q u a t e 1 lighting, and to
improve antiquated safety condi-tions
which now exist at Confeder-ate.
In addition to the most impor-tant
fact that CMMC is the f i r s t,
and last hope for medical aid in
many instances for thousands of
poor people in Northwest Louisiana
it should also be remembered that'
it is the teaching hospital for the
Louisiana State University Medical
School in Shreveport,
The medical school will come
up for final accreditation in Janu-ary
and during a recent visit to the
governor's office Dr. George Me-neely,
associate dean of the school,
told Gov. Edwards that the school
must be able to tell the accrediting
agency that the hospital will be
brought up to acceptable standards.
It certainly should not be too
much to ask in the affluence of
1972 for patients in the terrible
summer heat of North Louisiana to
have air conditioned rooms or ade-quate
safety conditions while hospi-talized.
We do not see how the state
can do less.
Nor, do we think, it is too much
to expect the teaching hospital for
the state u n i v e r s i t y ' s medical
school to have modern facilities for
the training of future generations
of doctors.
We think that after today Gov.
Edwin Edwards will once more be
in the corner of the people of
Northwest Louisiana. We think that
he will share our concern for the
human needs of the people served
by Confederate Memorial Medical
Center, and the students, residents
and interns who must depend on
the center as a teaching facility.
And with his aid we believe
CMMC will r e c e i v e these state
funds which are necessary to make
it adequate for people.