The executive vice president of the A.H.C. and professor of health administration, Ray Brown, resigned last Spring with little publicity and no public discussion of the reasons surrounding his departure only two years after being brought here to put the A.H.C. on its feet:
A nationally recognized expert in community health, Dr. Charles Lewis, was brought to Harvard and named Professor of Social Medicine. Dr. Lewis studied the proposals for community health delivery at the A.H.C. and was critical of what he found at that time. He told A.H.C. officials last Fall there was no viable plan for community health activity as part of the A.H.C.
Dr. James Shapiro, one of three Harvard researchers to receive national publicity for determination of the structure of the gene, has droop his research activities to concentra on problems of health delivery. D? Shapiro will devote his efforts the year to helping "correct the inequiti?? in the current plans of the A.H.C.
The dean of Harvard Medica? School, Dr. Robert H. Ebert, has been unable, thus far, to participate in raising funds for the A.H.C. Dea? Ebert stressed that his fund-raising activities must be based on program particularly programs for community care. To date the programs of the A.H.C. have not been well enough defined to permit his participation.
Dr. Ebert is in a difficult position in publicly criticizing the plan for community health delivery at the A.H.C. since the president of the board of trustees of the A.H.C., Stanton Deland, is a member of the medical school's visiting committee, and the chief fund raiser for the A.H.C., Thomas D. Cabot has long-time ties to the Harvard Corporation.
Dr. Leonard W. Cronkhite, general director of the Children's Hospital Medical Center, has been critical of the plans for community health services at the A.H.C. and has made a presentation of other options which might be implemented by the proposed complex. He has seen no evidence, thus far, of interest on the part of the A.H.C.
There is growing evidence that Harvard will not be able to remain aloof from the plans for community health care at the A.H.C., and will have to assume a portion of the responsibility for failure to meet the health needs of community residents in Roxbury and Jamaica Plain in the 70's in the event no changes are made in the current plans of the A.H.C.