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Senator JOHN L. MCCLELLAN,

U.S. Senator for Arkansas, Washington, D.C.

THE NEW KBHS,
Hot Springs, Ark., May 29, 1959.

DEAR SENATOR MCCLELLAN: In connection with present hearings before the Senate Committee on Government Operations on your bill to transfer the Army and Navy Hospital at Hot Springs to the State of Arkansas, I wish you to bring the following request to that committee before any final action or vote is taken. Testimony by Maj. Gen. Silas B. Hays, the Surgeon General, and Senator J. William Fulbright, of Arkansas, as quoted by the United Press International, before the House Committee on Government Operations, was not correct-and I believe it may have misled the Congressmen on their deliberations concerning the hospital.

(a) General Hays was quoted as saying "the people who are entitled to use hospital at Hot Springs, in the majority of cases, can get Government-paid medical care at civilian hospitals and other military hospitals."

At the present time there is no way disabled, retired members of the Military Establishment or their dependents can obtain Government-paid care in any civilian hospital. Records show there are many of these people-arthritic and coronary cases particularly-living in this area solely to be within reach of the Army and Navy Hospital. As members of the Regular military services, they are not entitled to the facilities of the Veterans' Administration hospital at Little Rock either, and with the shutting of the Army and Navy Hospital here they will be in serious circumstances. Official records at the hospital indicate between two and three hundred retired military families will be in this category at the present time.

Recommendation.-That the Army continue operation of this hospital until pending legislation on equalization of pay for the retired members of the military services (40 bills are in the House including H.R. 4592 by Mills of Arkansasand in the Senate, S. 269 and S. 541 are sponsored by 30 Senators) is passed. Recommendation-That the Army also continue operation of this hospital pending legislative action now being proposed to the Congress by the Retired Officers Association to provide medical care for retired and disabled military personnel on the same basis as that provided for active duty personnel under the "medicare" bill.

(b) Senator J. William Fulbright, of Arkansas, in testifying before the House Committee on Government Operations in favor of a bill to transfer the Army and Navy Hospital to the State of Arkansas gave operating figures on the hospital that were not correct. The Senator testified that the "cost of $2 million a year for the Army's operation would be reduced to only a million dollars a year when the hospital was operated as a rehabilitation center by the State. The Senator, after being advised of the error a few days later, learned from the Army that the operating cost is $900,000 a year, and that even by adding the total present military salaries ($600,000) it still was well below his figure used before the House committee.

Recommendation.-Some study be made of why the Government is considering making a million-dollar-a-year appropriation for the State of Arkansas to operate this institution, a figure about $100,000 a year more than the Army spends now, and in addition hand over the hospital itself, including 34 permanent buildings and 25 acres of U.S. Government-owned real estate.

Recommendation.-At present the Veterans' Administration hospital at Little Rock is advising prospective patients-the Nation's former military defenders— that "there is about a 60-day wait for admittance" because the hospital is already overcrowded. It is strongly urged that if any use has to be found for this 400bed institution, it is clearly the job of the Government Operations Committee to explore all needs of the military veterans for this purely military hospital. And there seems to be a definite need for more hospital space for veterans in this area. Before the Korean war, about 100 beds in this hospital were allocated for Veterans' Administration patients-it appears that the need still exists.

(c) In the past many months, reports and rumors have been fairly widespread of plans and proposals for new hospital construction being contemplated by various Government agencies, including the military services.

Recommendation.-It is urged that rather than having a routine survey of hospital needs be made by the General Services Administration, that the Committee on Government Operations obtain through testimony from the military services and the Veterans' Administration, a complete report of their future plans for any contemplated new hospital construction-so that the committee can determine if there is possible duplication of the Army and Navy Hospital facilities being inadvertently considered.

Recommendation.-It is also urged that the committee have testimony given by the civil defense authorities, and the Army as to the importance or unimportance of keeping the Army and Navy Hospital under Federal jurisdiction in the event of a national emergency in which hospitals along the coastal areas might become unusable through enemy attack.

The writer of this letter, a news editor of an Arkansas radio station, has had all of the foregoing questions and recommendations made over the past year from interested listeners, many of them men with considerable Government and military experience. Unfortunately circumstances preclude making a personal appearance in Washington in this matter, therefore consideration of this letter is requested.

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