By Steve Huffman
shuffman@salisburypost.com
Officials with Hefner VA Medical Center said Friday that feedback from the public greatly influenced a decision to keep the facility’s services largely unchanged until at least 2013.
Speaking at a news conference, William Feeley, a deputy under secretary in the Veterans Health Administration, referred to the “feedback from many shareholders” that influenced a second look at planned changes at the VA.
“Things evolve over time based on feedback,” Feeley said. “As feedback came in, it was decided that this was the thing to do.
“Plans change,” Feeley reiterated more than once, adding, “a number of community shareholders chimed in.”
The VA announced Thursday that during the next five years, planned new VA health-care centers will be built in Winston-Salem and Charlotte. Those centers are scheduled to be opened by 2013.
The Salisbury facility’s inpatient and emergency room facilities were to be contracted out sooner under plans announced four months ago.
But this week, VA officials said those facilities will remain largely as they are until at least 2013 when the Salisbury emergency room is changed to an urgent care facility.
Even then, Feeley said, the urgent care facility will likely have operating hours in the 8 a.m.-to-8 p.m. range, requiring that veterans seek care from a private hospital only after that.
Feeley said when veterans are required to seek after-hours care from a private hospital, “The VA will pick up the tab.
“It’s a benefit of having a contract with a private-sector hospital,” Feeley said.
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.
Feeley said the expansion plan will result in overall job increases, though he also admitted that job transfers from the Salisbury facility are likely.
Feeley said it was impossible to place a number on those transfers, though he noted the move will result in “more (full-time employees), not less.
“We’ll see job increases,” he said.
Feeley said the goal of the VA continues to be to provide veterans with health care in the areas in which they live. He referred to one veteran who lived 90 miles from Salisbury.
“We don’t want him going 90 miles,” Feeley said, noting the object is to provide the veteran with medical care closer to his home.
“We’re trying to get care closer to where the people live,” Feeley said. “This isn’t about money, it’s about providing care to where the patients are.”
Referring to veterans, Feeley said, “They’re the No. 1 priority.”
Carolyn Adams, director of the Salisbury VA, agreed. She said “town-hall type” meetings will be held throughout the community in coming months so officials with the VA will have a better opportunity to explain what’s in store for the facility.
“We’ll still have a very large workforce at Salisbury to serve the care of our veterans,” she promised.
Feeley and Adams said the VA facilities being built in Charlotte and Winston-Salem will be state of the art, years in the planning and construction.
Most lawmakers and veterans welcomed this week’s VA announcement pertaining to a delay in changes to the Salisbury facility.
A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, the ranking Republican on the Senate’s Veterans Affairs committee, said he’s looking forward to making sure that veterans receive appropriate care.
Gary Foster of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3006 in Salisbury said he was overjoyed to learn that the Hefner VA’s emergency room and inpatient-care services would remain as they are.
But Essie Hogue, president of the local chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees, which includes many VA workers, said the four-year delay is not enough.
“They’re still going to shut down the medical center, the inpatient services, after four years,” she said. “They’re giving themselves time to build these same-day surgical units.”
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Staff writers Kathy Chaffin and Hugh Fisher contributed to this story.