Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Director: he alt By CHERE COPE Staff Writer Inadequate student health fees and a shor tage of doctors are two problems plaguing Carolina's student health service, director Iseo Hirata said. "On student health fees it is almost impossi ble to deliver service. You can't buy medical service cheaply. Doctors who work for nothing, give nothing," he said. Hirata said he felt students were being unreasonable when they complain there is no service at the clinic. "The clinic is having an impact, we are seeing twice as many students as before. We get nasty letters by neurotic people who do not realize that we are seeing 150 students a day with just two doctors." "The need is," he continued, "to have more doctors to minimize waiting as the service improves." Hirata compared USC's health service with those of the Universities of Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina. "They are seeing up to about 600 students a day. North Carolina has a full time staff of 22 salaried doctors. A good doctor costs about $20,000 a year, and if you multiply that by 22, plus nurses, laboratory and pharmacutical costs you can see that the medi cal cost becomes quite significant." Hirata continued, "If our student health fees $ were $120 per student like Yale's are, we could r have everything done on a specialist level. Of n course, we can never reasonably approach that, so we must make compromises because of cost. g With a realistic fee, by increasing the present S a GAMECOCK g The Ga"ecock Is published twice weekly on Monday and Thursday dur- q the fal and spring semesters with the exception of university holidays ad exam periods. Change of address forms, subscriptions requests and other mail items t( shoul be sent to The Gamecock, Drawer A, USC, Columbia, S. C., 29208. f Subacito rae Is $3 per semester. The Gamecock received $38,000 c from the student activity fund entitling full-time students to a subscription, a Offices of The Gamecock are rooms 317, 318 and 319 in Russell House en the uilversity campus. Telephones are 777-8178 and 777-4249, news, r and 777-3888, advertising. Second class postage paid at Columbia, S. C. PUDERISA Student Night TUESDAY 5 P.M. 'til Closing SPECIAL STEAK DINNER $119 *With Student ID 'The best steak at the best price. Served with baked potato or French fries, tossed salad and bread. COME AS YOU ARE 546 KNOX ABBOTT DRIVE IN CAYCE BUSH RIVER ROAD-JUST OFF 1-26 4510 DEVINE STREET.EASCOLUMI A a h fees in fee a very small amount, we will be able to provide commensurate health care for the stu dents." Several policy changes in drug dispensation have occurred including that regarding birth control pills since Hirata arrived at the clinic last semester. "These were sensible and neces sary changes, because there was no policy before. We will not give birth control pill: unless a girl has been seen by our gynecologist. The pill is not a piece of candy, and it cannot be given indiscriminatly," Hirata said. Hirata said he does not feel abortions will be performed at the new student infirmary, despite the recent Supreme Court ruling that io woman can be denied an abortion. There is nothing in the future that will be done. I do not think that abortions are safe for out patients, it is not an innocuous procedure." "We would not have the equipment," Hirata added. "We would need an operating room, intensive care--I do not feel that it is an opera State's persor Personal income in South Carolina rose from 8,974 million at seasonally adjusted annual ates in the second quarter of 1972 to $9,282 fillion in the third quarter. This increase of three per cent was ninth lar est among the 50 states, according to Dr. Olin . Pugh, director of the Bureau of Business nd Economic Research at USC. The increase, Pugh said, exceeded the two er cent national gain and the two per cent ain in Georgia but fell short of North arolina's four per cent expansion for the same larter. Personal income, he explained, measures the )tal income received by residents of a state 4om all sources and is considered the most )mprehensive measure of economic activity vailable on a state wide basis. South Carolina's third quarter income gain. eflected above average gains in most, idustries with increases being especially high RING Jan. 30t1 Factory ring representatit and Wednesday, January of all ring styles will be a You must have 75 hour of2:Oto< The Camj RUSSELLt dequate tion a student health service should provide." Students have complained they are not examined properly by the clinic's doctors and that diagnoses ate made hastily and improperly. "Any student," Hirata said, "who can expect a doctor to spend 30 minutes a day to examine him when there are people sitting on the floor in the waiting room with temperatures is quite unreasonable. We can't combat this type of rumor, you must judge the source." "Wrong diagnoses are also a common com plaint," Hirata said. "A student thinks he is so intelligent that he knows more than the doc tor. What happens is, the student is examined here by a certified or specified doctor, then goes home and has his 50 or 60 year old family doctor come up with a different diagnoses. Well, you know whose diagnoses is right. Again, you must consider the source. When we get letters from doctors telling us that we are mak ing wrong diagnoses and harming people, then we will believe it." ial income up in manufacturing and agriculture.* Earnings of manufacturing employees, which account for nearly one third of all state income, expanded four per cent. Nationall the compar able rate of increase was one per cent. A near doubling of income from agriculture from the second to third quarters of 1972 also contributed significantly to the state's better than-average gain in total income. However, Pugh noted, South Carolina's farm income accounts for only one-tenth as much of the total income as manufacturing. In contrast to the income gains of manufac turing and farming, total wages and salaries paid state federal employes declined in the third quarter. Pugh said this decline dampened the expansion in total income. From the third quarter of 1971 to the third luarter of 1972, income in South Carolina rose t0 per cent compared with a national increase )f eight per cent. DAYS h &3lst es will be here Tuesday 30th and 31st. Samples vailable and on1ers taken. on recoin and a GPR tualify. us Shop HOUSE