Medicine: Looking Forward

The medical supply business, like many another, was almost flattened out by Army & Navy dumping after World War I. Resolved not to be caught napping this time, the medical supply trade two years ago met with representatives of medical associations to see if such dumping could be avoided after World War II (TIME, March 29, 1943).

Last week a plan, devised by the Public Health Service’s Medical Director Paul M. Stewart and backed by the Surplus Property Board’s Ed Heller, took shape in Washington. Under it, the Surplus Property Board would : 1 ) sell or rent leftover medical supplies and equipment to communities which could not afford to buy them on the regular market; 2) charge almost nothing — e.g., a dollar a year rent for expensive X-ray apparatus.

The sponsors believe that the plan would actually expand the medical supply market by introducing medical benefits where they never existed before. Installation of proper medical equipment in the 1,200 counties without public health services would doubtless induce many of the 80,000 doctors and dentists returning from the war to settle in the sticks. The Surplus Property Board is sympathetic but has yet to act on the plan. At the moment, there are no surplus medical supplies and will not be until the Japs call it quits.