Bedford VA center considered for closure

Bedford VA center considered for closure
By Evan Lehmann, Transcript Washington Bureau
Article Launched: 02/12/2007 11:38:58 AM EST

Monday, February 12
WASHINGTON — Hundreds of aging and ill veterans are awaiting a decision from Washington that could uproot them from the sprawling medical facility in Bedford where they live.

Family members of the veterans, many of whom served in World War II or Korea, could also face a move, or wending their way through Boston traffic to care for husbands and fathers now in the facility's nursing home or acclaimed 100-bed Alzheimer's unit.

"It's more than commutes" for families, George Guertin, department service officer for the American Legion in Massachusetts, said of the proposal to move the veterans from Bedford to Brockton. "If you change (the veterans') environment in any way, you threaten their lives."

The consolidation proposal, which sparked a deluge of 13,000 comments in public forums, is a central pillar in three of the four recommendations being analyzed by a government-contracted consultant.

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But Massachusetts lawmakers are fighting for that one-in-four recommendation that would keep inpatient veterans in Bedford. All 12 members of the delegation spotlighted the Alzheimer's program as the "nation's premier center."

More:
http://www.thetranscript.com/localnews/ci_5211675

I saw the veterans director the other day say that they'er giving more

funding than ever before for the VA programs. Oddly the money doesen't

seem to be able to be spent. It's as if the money is being given for

private investment. Now vets got to drive a longer ways for treatment

and wait longer on a list!

because, if I remember correctly, Bedford contained one of the few nursing home facilities that the VA system bothered to build.

When I worked at the VA in the 80s, the acute care beds were few and far between because the place was chock full of WWII vets who needed nursing home care but who were in no danger of dying within 6 months. Since that is the time limit the VA system will pay for nursing home care, the VAMC had to accept them and house them in acute care wards.

This is clearly insane. There are already too few nursing home facilities even as the WWII vets start to die off. We have Vietnam vets who are starting to need long term care and enough war wounded to see that there will be no places for them in VA facilities.

To shut down one of the few long term care facilities in the system is beyond short sighted and cruel. Anyone who suggests it is certifiable.

new VA facilites not closing them.

This is insanity! What is the new "Democrat" majority in Congress doing about it?

seems to be deliberately cruel, even sadistic. We are seeing thousands of returning troops from Iraq and Afghanistan with horrific wounds, both physical and emotional. So this is the way the Republic party supports the troops, huh? How anybody with an ounce of conscience or compassion could vote for these people is beyond me.

Don't they realize how damaging this is? Do the people who vote for Republics think that slapping a yellow ribbon on their vehicles really supports the troops? I wonder, if questioned, if any of the men or women serving in Bush's wars would say they would rather have that type of "support", or the type we want, bringing them safely home.

I think that every young person thinking about joining the military should be required to visit a veteran's hospital, and see what would await them, should they be injured. At the very least, they should watch a filmed tour, and be given an honest explanation of what being in the military under Bush means. Recruiters are lying to these kids, sending them off to fight while they're still in their teens, then after becoming severely wounded, they come back to find out that the government has no more use for them.

So many vets end up homeless, plagued with a lifetime of alcohol and drug abuse, because they can't get the help they need from the government. We need more, not fewer VA hospitals, in order to meet our commitment to the ones who serve.