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Friday, ’oclnlier 20. m1

SCARLET AND BLACK

Page Thro-

 

A 9th FSR SIQK SENSE?

By DON WINNEY

After awkwardly groping in
my last two articles for some
kind of grand catharsis of pity
and nausea. I thought in this
third and final article of the
Dr. Kildare trilogy I would ap-
peal to the intellectual that
lurks in all of us somewhere
between Hurling and the North
Lounge. I want to examine the
medical problem at Grinnell
and do What most critics abhor
doing—suggest a possible soiu~
florid

The main problem with Grin<
hell's medical help is that the
college has little or no control
over‘it. If the student is im-
fortunate enough to contract
more than a cold, he is re-
ferred by the health center to
any one of several town doc-
tors who somehow have been
apportioned a share in the stu-
dent business. That doctor may
or may not be competent but
in any event he examines the
student and then applies to the
insurance company that carries
the college health insurance and
receives from it a standard
fee. (In one case two years
ago the fee was eight dollars
for two minutes' time; the time
was insufﬁcient.)

The student receives a re-
nelpt from the insurance com-
any and the case is closed.
n other words. the town doc-
tor, always busy with his town
patients who provide the bulk
of his business and are an un-
dertandahly important part of
his income, can nevertheless
in a year’s time accrue a
healthy—is that the word?—
suppiementary income from his
student patients. And with that
side business. that fixed income
that no one will ever question,
there is always the temptation.
whether realized or not, to
slight students and spend more
time with that elastic portion

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of his income—his town pa-
tients.

The doctor not only maina
tains but expands his practice.
for like most small towns.
Grinnell is a doctor‘s market.
A thriving practice is possible
if the doctor concentrates on
faithfully caring for town pa-
tients. His time is understand
ably crowded; his town patients
are important. So he can afford
to look at the transient student,
that adolescent hypochondriac
plagued with problems of love
and gradepoint, with a certain
disdain. He can expect to hear
certain common complaints from
students who wander into his
office when he is so busy. He
can learn to ignore those com-
plaints. He can learn to ask
the simple questions that ter<
minate an appointment. “Do you
have a test tomorrow?" is one.
or “Aren't you just worried
about your grades?" Or he
might ask the ultimate question
to a Student concerned with
back trouble. for example:
“Are you having emotional
problems? Perhaps you need a
psychiatrist." He can then dis<
miss the student assured of his
eight dollars or whatever and
look after his town patient
whose future business with him
is not quite as assured as the
student."

And what of the student?
Usually his illness isn't serious
enough that such medical in-
difference will cause permanent
damage A few days and one
is generally well. But in those
rare cases where damage does
occur, permanent or temporary,
how does one prove incompet-
ence? It is difficult to do so
legally; it is quite messy 1e»
gally. But more than that, it
is simply difficult to know some-
times whether the damage in-
curred could have been averted.
It is sometimes impossible to
know In cases of sudden in-
jury or illness the student has
no recourse but to place his

faith in the competence oi near-
by physicians. And if that faith
is unjustified, then What?

But. someone will ask. is it
really as bad as all that in
the town of Grinnell? Well, see
for yourself. That question and
answer, however, is really ir-
relevant. The fact is the col-
lege has little control over that
answeri it runs a competent
health service—but only that.
But how is the college going
to assure its students that they
will always have a competent
physician? Or is medicai un-
certainty a basic part of a
Grinnell liberal arts education?

One possible solution to the
pmblem is simple but—as sim-
ple solutions may be~expensive.
The college could hire its own
physician on a fulltime basis
with an ample salary. The phy-
sician would care exclusively
for all students, for the faculty
and their families, and also
supervise the present health
center. The physician would thus
be assured a large enough cli<
enteie—and the students would
always be assured competent
medical help in any emergency.
or course, there is a great dif-
ficulty in this proposal—finding
such a physician. The admin<
istration recognizes the medi-
cal problem at Grinnell and in
now considering this and other
suggestions.

Considering the problem. how-
ever, is not necessarily going
to solve it. Something must be
done. The inadequate medical
service in Grinnell has long
been acknowledged regretfully,
jokingly. by faculty and students
alike. A college that is raising
money for a PE complex can
certainly afford to do something
about its medical service. The
question is whether it has the
will to do it—to give the med-
Ical problem a lu'ghenough
prlority that it can be solved
soon. One can only hope it will
be solved before we memorial-
ize an unwelcome martyr.

 

Our Representatives on Campus

South
North
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Langcin
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Gates 8
Clark
Dibble
Cowles
East
West

Salesman
Murry Nelson
Dick Lamb
Tom Lower
John Pittman
Rich Mc Ginn
leve Mc Dowell
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Don Peterson
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Poll Covcinaugh

South Campus

Marilyn Gray —

Jo Ellen Spriggs

Campus Representative —
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