CMMC in 'Dire Need'

              FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1972
Delegation Tells Governor—
CMMC In'Dire Need'
January," said Dr. Meneely.
"They are going to look at
that hospital and know that it
can't be r e n o v a t e d over-night."
He said they "direly need
assurances that OMMC will be
put back on its feet" in order
to get the final accreditation.
EDWARDS TOLD Dr. Me-neely
he felt assurance could
be given at the proper time.
Board chairman Harold K.
Quinn, later saying he felt the
meeting had gone well and
that the governor would help,
told Edwards the h o s p i t a l
doesn't qualify for federal
Hill-Burton funds because of
its present condition. Quinn
noted that "we have a lot of
suffering people up there who
need your help" and said the
monies would be used for such
needed items as air condition-ing,
automatic elevators and
additional parking.
He said matching monies
would come from f e d e r a l
funds and from hospital mo-ney
generated from ineligible
patient receipts.
EDWARDS — "THE MAN"
— couldn't resist inserting a
humorous cjuip or two into the
meeting, like, Sens. (J. B.)
Davis and (C. Kay) Carter
and Rep. (Alphonse) Jackson
told me, "If you appoint this
board, you'll never hear of
CMMC again — two days
later, I'm hearing your prob-lems"
But Edwards "the politi-cian"
tossed the ball back to
the local area by telling the
delegation he would like to
know "any practical solutions
you have through your local
legislative delegation."
The governor also said a
capital outlay program for all
areas would be drawn up soon
with $10 million a year in
additional r e v e n u e sources
projected. He said Confeder-ate
would receive a part of
that.
SEN. DAVIS BACKED up
Quinn's pleas for funds, as did
Sen. Carter and Shreveport
Mayor Calhoun Allen.
M a y o r Allen noted
Confederate's transition from
a patient care institution to a
teaching institution and said
the hospital "does need a lot
of attention." He also said
that the institution's physical
plant had deteriorated through
ordinary ir"~intenance neglect.
Sen. Davis, reminding the
governor that he ran on a
promise to help the people,
noted that CMMC had served
the area well, but pointed out.
that it had been built more
than 20 years ago.
ROBERT G. PUGH suggest-ed
that the governor arrange
to visit the hospital on his
next visit to Shreveport. Ed-wards
agreed to the idea and
said it would be on a hot,
dusty day as suggested by
board member Anna Laura
Wilder of Homer and Mayor
Allen.
So, with assurances to the
medical school and a promise
that he would visit Confeder-ate
and see its problems, the
delegation returned to Shreve-port
with the feeling that
"something had been accom
plished."
O T H E R S MAKING THE
trip were board members Dr.
James Tucker, Dr. J. Dudley
Talbot and Dr. W. J. Hill Jr.,
all of Shreveport; Wilbur T.
Purvis of Mansfield and An-dre
Joyce of Minden.
Also on hand were state
Sen. C. Kay Carter, represent-atives
Alphonse Jackson Jr.
and V. C. Shannon; Dr. Rufus
Walker, from the m e d i c a l
school; and Q u e n t i n Har-grove,
W i l l i a m S. Wilson.
Jesse 0. Morgan Jr., Mum
O'Neal and John Guth, repre-senting
various architectural
and engineering firms that
made a r e c e n t study of
Confederate's needs.
y MERRILEE LEATHERMAN
Journal Staff Writer
Confederate Memorial Medi-cal
Center, ever in need of
funds, made another plea for
financial aid Thursday — this
time to "the man" himself.
A gung-ho delegation, load-ed
with facts and figures, left
'Shreveport in the wee hours of
the morning to fly to Baton
Rouge to tell Gov. Edwin
Edwards exactly why $4.5
million is needed to modern-ize
Confederate and hoping
thereby to gain the governor's
assurance they would get the
necessary funds.
THE DELEGATION arrived
in the Louisiana capitol, ate a
hearty breakfast, and hurried
to the conference room where
the meeting was to take nlace.
The meeting did take place,
although not at once, The
capitol, after all, is a beehive
of activity these days and the
governor's days are filled with
people coming from through-out
the state to vie for his
attention.
So the delegation waited
until after 11 a.m. before they
were able to talk with the
Gov. Edwards.
A WAIT IN THE capitol is
not wasted, however. To see a
delegation in action is to see
the art, of politics at work —
to see how plans and ap-proaches
are formulated for
laving matters before state
officials.
He asked members of the
delegation if they would "real-ly
save anything' by getting
the monies "today versus six
months from now," obviously
referring to the time when the
new suoerboard agency goes
into effect and the CMMC
board is abolished.
DR. GEORGE MENEELY,
associate dean of LSU School
of Medicine in Shreveport,
told the governor what the
group really sought "is the
assurance that something will
be done about Confederate —
the teaching hospital for the
medical school.
"The m e d i c a l school is
coming up for its final accre-diation
by the Association of
American Medical Colleges in