3042                                    JOINT RESOLUTIONS

nook and corner filled with patient services and staff
members practically working on top of each other to treat
the patient load; and

WHEREAS, The absence of private family physicians in
the patients' home communities and the easily accessible
services at Franklin Square Hospital mandated a careful
plan to alleviate the situation; and

WHEREAS, Franklin Square Hospital was able to
establish a residency training program in family
practice, approved by the American Medical Association in
1972, followed by a $53,123 Federal grant from the
National Institutes of Health to support a modest portion
of the initial costs of developing the program; and

WHEREAS, The practice of family medicine today is a
skilled specialty in which the physician evaluates a
patient's total health needs, provides personal medical
care within one or more fields of medicine, emphasizes
preventive services, refers the patient to other
specialists when indicated, and maintains continuity of
care; and

WHEREAS, Unlike tertiary and secondary health care
problems, there is an urgent need for family physicians
to treat primary health care problems in the community,
problems that afflict any of us once or frequently and
can most efficiently and economically be treated in an
outpatient facility with a primary care center; and

WHEREAS, There currently should be at least 120
family physicians in the 300,000 resident service area of
Franklin Square Hospital (one family physician for each
2,500 population), and despite its commitment, the
Hospital is facing a grave financial crisis in sustaining
its family practice program with 7 residents and only 1
full—time faculty supervisor; and

WHEREAS, The insistent demand is to increase the
number of residents by 4 each year to a level of 18 to 24
residents in the total program, with 6 to 8 family
physicians being certified each year to serve the area;
and

WHEREAS, Franklin Square Hospital requires an
adjacent outpatient facility with a family practice
center to process patients to ambulatory and specialized
clinics and to handle the large volume of diagnostic
procedures with a laboratory and x—ray department, the
capital cost of which is $1.8 million for a single level
building of 20,000 square feet; and

WHEREAS, The State's Health Services Cost Review
Commission is developing policy that would prohibit a