City Health Services

Potshots are already beginning to ricochet off the calloused hide of City Manager Joseph DeGuglielmo in response to his latest plan for Cambridge--the consolidation of all the city's health and welfare facilities under one commissioner. His proposal, based on a report by Dr. Leona Baumgartner of Harvard Medical School, has been called everything from ineffectual to illegal.

Until all arguments and criticisms are exposed at a public hearing scheduled for Feb. 27, specific ramifications of the proposal cannot be commented on. But it is clear from Dr. Baumgartner's findings that there is much duplication--and hence waste--of health resources in the City. At the same time, funds are lacking for new services the City needs. Unification is an obvious and feasible answer, and niggling criticisms should not prevent the general implementation of DeGuglielmo's proposal.