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October, J 977 - New National BL ACK MON! TOK
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Neglected Needs
The medical care of black Americans has
always been, and remains today, a unique
public Health concern.
Black Americans die at a younger age
than do white Americans.
Black Americans receive health care at
later stages of illness than do white
Americans
Black Americans receive proportionately
less health care from physicians who know
them and the history of their problems than
do white Americans.
Black Americans tend to pay more for
less adequate care than do white Ameri
cans.
Black Americans are subjected to uncon
trolled experimentation to a larger degree
than are white Americans.
The proportion of black physicians serv
ing black urban areas has greatly decreased
from a half century ago.
The number of black medical students
has decreased proportionately to popula
tion needs.
In short, black medical care is in a
precarious, if not a perilous, condition
today.
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14
Toward Improved Medical Care For Black Americans:
The Charles R.Drew School Approach
Born of Discrimination
Byway of approaching this situation, as
one deeply significant model of what might
be done, the Charles R. Drew Postgraduate
Medical Center was founded in Los
Angeles, California. “Drew has committed
exceptional energy and resources to foster
community-based medical programs,”
Drew’s dean, Dr. Mitchell W. Spellman, has
emphasized. He adds: “Drew’s emphasis on
the mission of local community-oriented
public service is probably unsurpassed in
American medical schools.” While most
medical schools work almost exclusively in
the environment of university medical
center, Drew is different. Drew focuses
upon community service programs with a
significant outreach into the minority group
community in which the school is located.
On the surface, the Charles R. Drew
Postgraduate Medical School may seem
like almost any other professional educa
tional institution. Drew is the academic and
professional arm of the Los Angeles
County Martin Luther King, Jr. General
Hospital, a public teaching hospital. The
School was chartered as a non-profit, pri
vate institution in 1966 by the Charles R.
Drew Medical Society—which is the Los
Angeles Chapter of the National Medical
Association—, the University of Southern
California Medical School, and the Univer
sity of California at Los Angeles School of
Medicine.
Are you supporting the Mack-owned businesses and the block professionals in your community?
The School is named for Charles Richard
Drew, M.D., the eminent black surgeon
who established the first American Red
Cross Blood Bank and whose research was
instrumental in the expanded use of blood
plasma during World War 11. Dr. Drew,
both tragically and significantly, died as a
result of the grave public health care
problem facing black Americans in some
fashion everywhere, even today. Dr. Drew
was critically injured in the South. Hospital
discrimination, because he was black,
rather than his injuries, were said to have
led to his death.
The Charles R. Drew Postgraduate
Medical School was established to help
bring an end to this kind of medical mal
practice, regardless of the immediate form
in which it might be evident.
Serving A Medical Wasteland
Established in the wake of the fiery,
angry frustration of the 1965 Watts Riots,
the Drew School is a center not simply for
health sciences. It is an institution com
mitted to improving health services for citi
zens residing in the underserved South-
Central Los Angeles community, and
projects a model for contemporary urban
medical schools.
There is a deficit of physicians in the
nation’s inner-cities and rural areas. De
spite the increased number of physicians
being graduated who are black, Spanish
surnamed or other ethnic Americans, the
most densely populated areas of the coun
try continue to have the poorest physician/
patient ratio, as well as the lowest ratio of
available health care services.
The problem of maldistribution of health
manpower, both by medical specialty and
by geographical area, persists throughout
America. The inner-cities lack the capacity
to recruit or attract physicians; and facili
ties are sorely needed to develop physicians
who have the skills and attitudes to practice
urban medicine.
David Satcher, M.D., Chairman of the
Department of Family Medicine, says,
“The new emphasis on Family Practice,
which was revived in 1966, is an attempt to
deal with this problem in medical care for
common illness and disease prevention; it is
indeed a return to basics.
“Every year, millions of dollars are wast
ed in this country by people who try to
make their own diagnosis and then select
the right specialist. This often leads to
several referrals before the right physician
is found or before the patient gives up and
drops out of the health care system. At the
same time, many other persons present
themselves to the health care system only
after they have suffered a major complica
tion of a common illness —such as a stroke
or heart failure from untreated hyperten
sion.”
“Many inner-city residents depend upon
emergency wards for all of their care since
(Continued on Page 9.)