It is hereby declared to be the policy of the State of South Carolina to promote the public health and welfare by providing means for the financing, refinancing, acquiring, enlarging, improving, constructing, equipping, and providing of hospital facilities to serve the people of the State and to make accessible to them modern and efficient hospital facilities at the lowest possible expense to those utilizing such hospital facilities. The General Assembly hereby finds and declares that:
(1)There is a need to overcome existing and anticipated physical and technical obsolescence of existing hospital facilities, to provide additional modern and efficient hospital facilities in the State and to provide assistance to the extent herein provided in order that such hospital facilities may be made
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It is hereby declared to be the policy of the State of South Carolina to promote the public health and welfare by providing means for the financing, refinancing, acquiring, enlarging, improving, constructing, equipping, and providing of hospital facilities to serve the people of the State and to make accessible to them modern and efficient hospital facilities at the lowest possible expense to those utilizing such hospital facilities. The General Assembly hereby finds and declares that: (1) There is a need to overcome existing and anticipated physical and technical obsolescence of existing hospital facilities, to provide additional modern and efficient hospital facilities in the State and to provide assistance to the extent herein provided in order that such hospital facilities may be made available at the lowest possible expense. (2) Unless measures are adopted to alleviate such need, the shortage of such facilities will become increasingly more urgent and serious; and (3) In order to meet such shortage and thereby promote the public health and welfare of the people of the State, it is necessary that assistance be afforded in the providing of adequate, modern and efficient hospital facilities in the State so that health and hospital care and services may be expanded, improved and fostered to the fullest extent practicable at the lowest possible expense. (4) It is the purpose of this article to empower the governing bodies of the several counties of the State under the terms and conditions of this article to finance the acquisition, enlargement, improvement, construction, equipping and providing of such hospital facilities to the end that the public health and welfare of the people of the State will be promoted at the least possible expense to those utilizing such hospital facilities so provided. In this connection, such governing bodies shall function under the guidance of the State Fiscal Accountability Authority of South Carolina and the Department of Health and Environmental Control and shall be vested with all powers necessary to enable them to accomplish the purposes of this article, which powers shall be in all respects exercised for the benefits of the inhabitants of the State and to promote the public health and welfare of its citizens. It is specifically found and declared that all action taken by any county in carrying out the purposes of this article will perform an essential governmental function.