A news story earlier this week reporting that the Kansas University School of Medicine in Wichita is facing a severe financial crisis raises an interesting question.

KU medical school officials, led by Dean Barbara Atkinson, with strong support from KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway, spent a good part of the last two years trying to put together a deal with St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., in which KUMC and the KU Hospital would be weakened. Millions of dollars were involved in the deal with KU Hospital raising its fiscal support of the medical school to approximately $40 million a year and KUMC getting $1 million a year from St. Luke’s.

Why haven’t Atkinson and Hemenway given at least equal concern and attention to the Wichita medical school crisis? Shouldn’t a part of the KU medical school family that is located in Kansas and trains a large percentage of the physicians now practicing in Kansas warrant more attention, or at least the same amount of attention and care, as dealings with St. Luke’s, which is located across the state line?

Faculty members at the Wichita medical school need to engage in more scholarly and clinical research to preserve the accreditation for several residency programs in the school’s Wichita Center for Graduate Medical Education. The center also is experiencing financial problems because two Wichita hospitals that partner with the center no longer are able to help cover funding shortfalls.

It’s a serious matter, but, as might be expected, KU officials now are asking state legislators to come up with more money to meet the needs of the KU medical school in Wichita. Atkinson told legislators that without additional funding for research and operations, the center, which has trained physicians in nearly 70 percent of Kansas counties, might be forced to close.

In a tight budget year, there is every reason for legislators, as well as Wichita residents, to ask why KU medical school officials, as well as Atkinson and Hemenway, weren’t on top of this situation. Shouldn’t they have been working on a plan to provide adequate funding for the Wichita operation rather than trying to prop up St. Luke’s at the expense of the KU Medical Center in Kansas City and Wichita?

Several important residency programs at the Wichita school may be forced to shut down if the current crisis is not resolved. Why wasn’t Atkinson on top of this situation before it developed into a crisis?