The federal government is embarking on an expanded health program for its 2,346,700 employees that will require thousands of new nurses and hundreds of additional physicians to administer.
Announcing details of the program at a meeting of the Council of Federal Medical Directors for Occupational Health in Pittsburgh, on April 15, Civil Service Commission Chairman John W. Macy, Jr., labeled the new requirement a "tremendous step forward" that all federal departments and agencies shall establish an occupational health program. Previously, they were only "encouraged" to maintain such programs.
Result of the new directive, Macy states, "will be a reasonably uniform, substantial, government-wide occupational health service program, which is long overdue."
It is estimated that some 2,000 new health service units will be established in governmental units across the nation. This will eventually require the employment of additional federal medical officers, Macy pointed out, expressing the hope that the program will