European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 12, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Sunday february 12, 1989 the stars and stripes Page 7 Navy doctors won t admit patients say Long Beach Hospital is unsafe by the los Angeles times los Angeles in an unusual act of open rebellion a group of doctors at Long Beach naval Hospital has ceased admitting seriously ill patients because of what they say Are major and potentially hazardous inadequacies in equipment services and personnel at the Hospital. Six physicians in the internal medi Cine department detailed their concerns in a recent memo to their commanding officer that was made available to the los Angeles times. The internal Medicine department has had to confront a steadily decreasing set of patient care resources the doctors said in the memo. Recently these deficiencies have progressed to the Point where we feel that patients May be  according to a recent internal audit of services for instance the facility cannot sufficiently handle the treatment of Aller Gies heart ailments gynaecological prob lems childbirth or surgery to the hand Throat or blood vessels. Or. Frederick l. Jones head of the department and one of the memo s sign ers said the move was the culmination of Long simmering frustrations Over the deficiencies some of which were out lined in the memo. Another staff physician who did not sign the memo and who spoke Only on condition that his name not be used said i feel scared that my patients Are being taken care of in a system where the level of accountability and responsibility is very very Low. I think that because of the Lack of medical support any patient i operate on is at higher risk of a negative outcome than a similar patient on  officials at the facility the Only naval Hospital in los Angeles county and one which is considered a full serv ice general acute care facility deny that patients there receive less than Ade quate care. They also dispute the Doc tors assertion that admissions have de fowl comments stir up Hornet s nest about Montana s state Bird Helena Mont. A the Meadowlark is a de  the Magpie is murderous and  so which one should be the state Bird of Montana the question is about to be taken up by the Montana legislature and emotions Are running pretty High. The present state Bird is the Meadowlark but state rep. Tom Hannah says it deserts the state every win Ter just when residents need cheering up most. Enter the Magpie the Black and White scavenger of the Plains. He s pretty he s easily seen along almost any High Way in Montana even at temperatures of up to 40 and 50 below he is no fair weather Friend Hannah said recently. He is the  but such talk does t always sit Well with montanans. Stan Howe a humor columnist for the great Falls trib Une endorsed the Magpie As state Bird two years ago prompting a flock of angry letters. Magpies eat the eggs of More desirable Birds and Peck through the hides of cows readers wrote. The most charitable adjectives Tribune letter writers found for the Magpie were murderous and  just As things were getting ugly the Yellowstone chapter of the Audubon society stepped in and depending on one s Outlook either defended the Magpie or defamed the Bald Eagle. We know that in some quarters the Bird in t highly thought of said Gordon Weber of the Audubon society. However Hannah said people just Don t real ize he s in the same class As the american Eagle. Heats dead  creased in the last few months and characterize the memo simply As a particularly dramatic expression of the frustrations that most Navy doctors share. However they acknowledge the Chro Nic problems that beset most military hospitals. Ever since the end of the Viet Nam War military medical facilities throughout the country have been trying to balance the demands of ballooning patient loads with a dwindling Supply of resources while struggling to attract and retain experienced physicians. Nobody is More keenly aware of the problems facing Navy Medicine than Navy Medicine said Pat Kelly a Navy spokeswoman based in san Diego. But at the Long Beach naval Hospital some doctors say the situation has be come so acute that patients lives Are being endangered and doctors spirits sorely tested. Many of their complaints Are documented in the recent series of internal Hospital memos. Since 1985, according to the Navy the number of staff physicians at the site a 114-bed facility serving nearly 300,000 Active duty military personnel retirees and family members has dwindled from 68 to 38, a 44 percent decline that has necessitated the curtailment of sever Al major medical services. Although this is comparable to the experience of other area naval hospitals officials say the response has been especially pronounced at Long Beach. Staff morale according to one experienced Navy physician is at an All time Low the worst i be Ever seen any  the memo dated nov. 30 that was signed by the six internal Medicine Doc t9rs outlines a number of Hospital deficiencies. For example the memo mentions the Hospital s shrunken radiology department which offers no in House weekend service a poorly stocked phar Macy lacking such rudimentary medications As tylenol Basic Supply shortages including alcohol wipes and in Intra venous solutions frequent unavailability of crucial Laboratory tests and a longstanding absence of specialists. A Faberge egg gets raves from Christopher Forbes associate publisher of Forbes Magazine san Diego mayor Maureen o Connor Center and Irina Rodimo Seva director of Moscow s armory museum at a Dis play in new York. The world s two largest collections of egg nost rare Faberge eggs one belonging to Moscow s armory museum and the other to Forbes galleries will be Dis played together for the first time at a soviet arts festival this fall in san Diego. The eggs were created by Peter Carl Faberge for russian Royalty. So depositors continue Swift withdrawals. J.1 of 1 a to a  the Washington Post Washington depositors with Drew a record $8.1 billion from savings and loan institutions in december in what banking regulators say was a continuing slow erosion of so deposits. The bulk of the net outflows came from 16 unnamed institutions the fed eral Home loan Bank Board said. The outflow topped the previous one month record of $7.1 billion in net withdrawals set in november and govern ment sources said withdrawals continued to outpace deposits in january. The december net withdrawals rep resenting less than 1 percent 9f the so system s $972 billion in deposits Are a Sharp change from the $2.4. Billion in net new deposits during december 1987. Although banking regulators said they do not see signs of a run on so depos its the outflows helped Spur the Bush administration to act quickly last week to bolster Confidence in the nation s so system where accounts Are federally insured up to $ 100,000. Regulators noted that the december withdrawals were concentrated in 16 institutions which experienced $6.4 Bil lion in outflows. A singles a was responsible for $3.4 billion of that amount but the institution which was not identified is not in trouble the Bank Board said. Some of the december activity May have been caused by a shift of deposits into higher yielding investments such As Money Market Mutual funds regulators said. And some of it was attributed to withdrawals for the Holiday season. But other regulators attributed the bulk of the outflows to recurring publicity about the so Industry s problems and this has heightened their concern they said. In recent weeks so regulators across the country have reported higher than usual withdrawal activity officials at the Federal Home loan Bank Board have said. Part of the reason was recent publicity about an administration proposal later abandoned to impose a tax on Bank and so deposits to finance the so bailout. Mississippi thrifts experienced especially Large withdrawals according to congressional aides and regulatory officials. Separately Sheshunoff & co., a Thrift rating service in Texas said 72 percent of the nation s 3,032 thrifts in the coun try were profitable in the first nine months of 1988. But losses in unhealthy institutions left the Industry with a net loss of $4.5 billion on its balance sheets for that period the most recent Date for which Statis tics were available Sheshunoff said. The announcement of the december withdrawals came As Bank regulators took control of six More insolvent a is All of them in the Southwest. The Federal Deposit insurance corp., which insures deposits at commercial Banks and Man Ages Banks when they fail assumed control of the institutions from the Federal savings and loan insurance corp. The Transfer of responsibility for Trou bled a is from the folic to the Odic is a key part of the Bush administration s bailout plan for the Thrift Industry. The Odic s action was the second such move last week under the Bush plan unveiled monday. It took control from the folic of four ailing a is tuesday