By Kathy Chaffin and Hugh Fisher
kchaffin@salisburypost.com
The Department of Veterans Affairs announced Thursday that it would make no changes to the staff or services offered at Salisbury’s Hefner VA Medical Center before 2013.
But local veterans’ advocates say they’ll keep fighting to make sure the Salisbury hospital stays as it is for good.
The VA announced that, during the next five years, planned new VA health care centers will be constructed in Winston-Salem and Charlotte, according to the announcement from Dr. James B. Peake, secretary of Veterans Affairs.
Those centers are scheduled to be open by 2013.
The Salisbury facility’s inpatient and emergency room facilities were to be contracted out much sooner under previous plans.
The Department of Veterans Affairs announced in September that planned centers in Winston-Salem and Charlotte would provide primary care, with the Salisbury facility transitioning to focus on mental health and long-term care.
But now, VA officials say that won’t happen for at least four years.
“Once the HCCs in Charlotte and Winston-Salem are operational, the Salisbury VA Medical Center will be reviewed for opportunities to enhance its scope of providing health services and to become a center of excellence in both long-term care and mental health care,” the announcement said.
Until then, “The plan provides that no changes to health care delivery services … will be made until 2013, nor will there be any staff reductions.”
A news conference to discuss the new plan is scheduled for 11 a.m. today at the medical center.
William F. Feeley, deputy under secretary for health operations and management for the Department of Veterans Affairs, and Carolyn Adams, director of the Hefner VA Medical Center, are scheduled to speak at that event.
In recent months, the plan to contract outpatient services and shut down the local VA’s emergency room and inpatient care services drew widespread criticism from veterans groups and lawmakers.
Lawmakers responded quickly to the announcement.
Chris Walker, press secretary for U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, said the senator was briefed on the plan Thursday afternoon.
Burr is the ranking Republican on the Senate’s Veterans Affairs committee.
“He’s looking forward to working with them to address some of these questions and making sure the delivery of care for veterans is uninterrupted and making sure the treatment that they need will continue,” Walker said.
Calls to the offices of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole and Congressman Mel Watt were not immediately returned.
It took longer for word to reach local veterans.
Gary Foster of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3006 in Salisbury first heard of the announcement when contacted by a Post reporter.
“This couldn’t come at a better time,” Foster said.
He said a meeting was planned for Wednesday night and that he would pass along the good news.
VFW Post 3006 had helped host events opposing the planned changes, he said.
Foster said the news left him overjoyed.
“And I can speak for approximately 350 veterans that they will be more than glad to hear this,” Foster said.
“Some of these guys were panicking. They were deeply concerned over these changes,” he said.
For others who have been fighting the proposed changes, the announcement changes nothing.
Essie Hogue, president of the local chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees, said the four-year delay is not enough.
“They’re still going to shut down the medical center, the inpatient services, after four years,” Hogue said. “They’re just giving themselves time to build these same-day surgical units.”
She said the surgical units would be good for veterans.
“But we feel they shouldn’t have to go to a private hospital with the general public if they have to be hospitalized more than one day.”
According to Hogue, veterans would only be able to stay for one night at the proposed HCCs.
And emergency room care would have to be paid for out of pocket, and veterans would have longer wait times at public hospitals, if the local VA emergency ward closed.
“What they failed to tell the vets is that they will have to get in line with the private sector,” Hogue said.
“When they go to the emergency room with chest pains, there will be hundreds of people there.”
Hogue said she’s convinced that the ultimate goal is to fully outsource veterans’ health care to the private sector.
And that, she said, would be a tragedy for the veterans as well as for health care workers.
“They gave their lives for this country, and they should not be so much of a burden” that the government would get rid of their health care, Hogue said.
While some local veterans celebrated news of the new schedule, Hogue said she and her colleagues are not giving up on keeping the Salisbury VA open. She plans more rallies and said she is continuing to meet with veterans agencies and lawmakers.
“They just gave me four more years to fight for it,” Hogue said.