Challenges to public health outlined
By DON MACK
Of the Emerald
“Only if we replace rhetoric
by deeds can the future of public
health be preserved.”
This was the view of Dr. John
Cippola, director of health
planning, Oregon State Board of
Health, who spoke before about
75 persons in the EMU ballroom
Thursday.
Cippola, who called public
health “the greatest challenge of
the era,” was one of ten guest
speakers participating in a three
day symposium sponsored by the
University School of Health,
Physical Education and
Recreation marking the school’s
50th anniversary.
The health director said the
phrase “health is a basic right”
is meaningless unless followed up
by actions. And if Americans
believe those words, health must
take national priority over such
programs as arms spending and
lunar missions, he said.
Public health in America is
beset with problems stemming
from failures in the medical care
system, lack of money and
conflicting social values, Cippola
said.
The medical care system in
America was predicated on the
family doctor concept, he said.
Now, fewer general practitioners
are graduating, patients are
going directly to specialists and a
medical manpower shortage is
becoming critical.
“Neither federal, state or
local governments have faced the
fact that health is a basic right by
backing that with money,”
Cippola charged.Oregon has the
“dubious distinction” of
allocating no money to local level
health agencies, he said.
The professor of public
health at Pacific University
pointed out the incongrous
situation existing today in which
fewer scholarships are available
for medical students while
construction of health facilities
continues.
Two theories of man’s
relationship to society have
produced conflicting values
which are damaging public
health, Cippola said. The social
responsibility theory says the
government has the respon
sibility of providing high public
health standards, while the
personal responsibility theory
stresses the importance of in
dividual initiative.
“The Elizabethan idea
remains that the sick are sick and
the poor are poor because they do
not show the initiative to keep
themselves healthy,” he said.
Cippola called for a synthesis
of the two value systems which
would provide for personal
initiative but demand social
responsibility for federal, state
and local government. “This
requires a view of government as
‘we’ and not ‘they.’ ”
Creation of comprehensive
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partnersmp neaun services,
comprised of practising
physicians from every medical
specialty, should be the objective
when planning the future of
public health, he said.
The secret to resolution of
public health problems “lies in
the success of getting the five
segments of society to move
mwaiu men responslDUlties,
Cippola said.
He said the educational
establishment, particularly
medical schools, professional
health organizations, private
health agencies such as industry,
ihe government, and individuals
must be the segments of society
willing to tackle present public
health problems.
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