No Place to Go

P: At least 60% of doctors do not treat alcoholics in any shape or form. P: Municipal hospitals, when they admit drunks, treat them with indifference, sober them up, try to get rid of them as quickly as possible (usually in less than 24 hours). Most private hospitals bar them.

This report, a stern rebuke to the medical profession, was delivered last week by a committee of the New York Academy of Medicine. The survey covered only New York City. But other cities are apt to be worse; most dump alcoholics in jail.

Some 60 doctors, judges and other experts, gathered at the Academy to consider the report, agreed that it was high time medics recognized alcoholism as a disease. The conferees, headed by grizzled old Anton J. Carlson, famed University of Chicago physiologist, resolved that: 1) New York should create a state commission on alcoholism* ; 2) medical and hospital societies should back medical care for alcoholics; 3) New York City should set up experimental "colonies" for long-term rehabilitation of compulsive drinkers.

Snapped Dr. E. M. Bluestone of New York's Montefiore Hospital: "What many hospital trustees and . . . executives need is a stimulating drink. . . ."

* Five states have done so: Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Washington, Alabama.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.