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On Probation. While extreme, the problems are not unique. They reflect the sharp rise in medical costs and the changing makeup of the nation's cities. In Boston's case, as the middle-class Irish drifted to the suburbs, Curley-style paternalism faded. The hospital was flooded with more and more poor patients, but it lacked the means to provide the increasingly expensive medical care. Faced with spreading urban decay and soaring annual deficits, a strapped city hall felt compelled to place the hospital's money requests far behind other needs, such as schools, slum demolition and downtown renewal. Three years ago, the hospital's accreditation was put on probation. Still, newly installed Mayor Kevin White, who has switched the emphasis to low-income housing and neighborhood improvement, reluctantly cut $6,000,000 from this year's $36 million hospital budget.
The doctors' outcry has already had some small remedial effect. Two weeks ago, the city council voted another $536,000 for nurses' salaries; now White is asking the council to restore a third of his budget cuts. Most of this extra money would go for emergency renovation, so that the hospital can retain at least its probationary status. Help may come from Washington, where Massachusetts' Senator Edward M. Kennedy has been plugging for federal loans to crisis-ridden municipal hospitals. But the question remains whether the financial therapy will be quick and massive enough to save Boston City.