“A Message of Great Hope, of Almost Infinite Promise, and Yet of Great Practicability”
So begins the letter of submittal by Dr. Clarence Poe, Chairman of the North Carolina Hospital and Medical Care Commission, to the North Carolina General Assembly in 1945. Along with the report of the full commission, nine detailed reports were offered:
- Hospital and Medical Care for Our Rural Population
- Hospital and Medical Care for Our Industrial and Urban Population
- Special Needs of Our Negro Population
- Four-Year Medical School for University and Hospital Facilities
- Mental Hygiene and Hospitalization
- Hospital Care and Medical Care Plans in Other States
- A Schoolchild Health Program
- An Enlarged Public Health Program for North Carolina
- A Statistical and Graphic Summary of North Carolina Hospital
and Medical Care Needs
Dr. Carl V. Reynolds, Secretary of the State Board of Health, drafted the report proposing a public health program dedicated to the good health of every citizen in North Carolina. The commission’s major recommendation on public health was the following:
“Appropriations for public health work should be increased until the state has [an] entirely adequate program for the prevention of disease, thus reducing needed hospital and medical care to the lowest practicable minimum.”
The commission’s reports were collected in To the Good Health of All North Carolina and printed at private expense in 1945. These reports, as well as other formative public health documents, have been digitized and published online by the UNC Health Sciences Library.
The Good Health Campaign
