NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1973 SESSION

 

 

CHAPTER 562

HOUSE BILL 1123

 

 

AN ACT TO ESTABLISH A RESERVE FUND TO CREATE AN ADDITIONAL DEGREE-GRANTING SCHOOL OF MEDICINE WITHIN THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA.

 

Whereas, there is strong evidence that many areas of the State, East, Piedmont, and West, do not share in the availability of a broad range of high quality medical care routinely enjoyed and expected by citizens of other states and by North Carolinians located near the large medical complexes and population centers; and

Whereas, the ratio of physicians who actually provide personal health services to people is probably the most important single factor in determining the quality and quantity of health care available, and this ratio is known to be low in our State as a whole, and desperately low in large geographic areas; and

Whereas, the number of physicians practicing in an area has the added effect of attracting allied health personnel so essential to broad health care; and

Whereas, it is concluded that there is a crying demand by our neglected people for a substantial increase in the production of physicians in an atmosphere of family practice, nontraditional specialty emphasis, and admissions screening related to the goal of improved health care for the State's rural areas and small towns and communities; and

Whereas, the Committee to study the request of East Carolina University for a second year of medical education, as established by the Board of Governors, believes that we should "consider seriously the establishment of a new degree-granting school of medicine which would emphasize the training of primary care physicians"; and

Whereas, in response to this Committee's recommendation, a study is underway by a team of experienced and qualified national consultants to evaluate the need for an additional degree-granting school of medicine within the University of North Carolina; and

Whereas, if this study should indicate the need for an additional degree‑granting school of medicine, it would not be possible to provide for implementation without substantial advance consideration of the tax resources required; and

Whereas, several other states, among them Arkansas, Iowa, Mississippi, and South Carolina, have seen the wisdom of establishing substantial contingency reserves to provide for future needs; Now, therefore,

 

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

 

Section 1.  There is hereby appropriated out of the General Fund of the State the sum of seven million five hundred thousand dollars ($7,500,000) to the Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina as a reserve to establish an additional degree-granting School of Medicine within the University of North Carolina.

Sec. 2.  This act shall be effective July 1, 1973.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 17th day of May, 1973.