Defense Department May Institute Scholarships for Medical Schools

To assure a steady supply of doctors for the services, the Defense Department in seriously considering a program of scholarships to medical schools, it was announced earlier this week.

The department plans to get from each man pledged to the program a year's service in return for each your he had been government-sponsored while in school.

Neither the Bureau of the Budget nor the nation's medical schools have yet given their approval of the plan. Details, such as the size of anbaistones payments, have not yet been determined.

To Replace Doctor Draft

The plan was announced by Dr. Melvin A. Casberg, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health and Medical Affairs. He said that if Congress approved the plan, the Defense Department hoped to end the doctor draft. The services have shown marked disapproval of the doctor draft since it brings so many unwilling professional men into the service.

Dr. Casberg said the Department of Defense would not directly select those who would receive the scholarships, but would "approach" the deans of the nation's eighty medical schools and work out the list with them.

Casberg said that the present ratio of 25 percent regular Army medical officers to 75 percent reservists should be reversed to give the services the sustained medical programs they need. The new plan of scholarships would also include dentists, nurses, and to a certain extent, veterinarians.