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WALLA WALLA VETS RALLY AGAIN TO SAVE VA HEALTH
SERVICES -- "We're asking for adequate care we
were promised, you and I and all other
veterans."
Last year the VA announced they will
close the full-service VA hospital in Walla Walla, Washington...and
replace it with an outpatient clinic.
Story here...
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/tch/
local/story/8590752p-8483642c.html
Story below:
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Veterans decry threat to VA health services
By Joe Chapman, Herald staff writer
They fought in Vietnam, Korea, Europe and the Pacific -- wherever they
were called to protect America's interests.
Now they feel their guarantee to quality health care is threatened, and
they're ready to fight again. This time, they'll take the fight to
Washington, D.C.
About 150 of them rallied Thursday for restoring previous levels of
service at the Jonathan M. Wainwright VA Medical Center in Walla Walla.
"Write to your congressmen, even if you don't think they're listening to
you," said Jack Onley, 59, of White Swan. A Vietnam veteran and head
warrior of the Yakama Warriors Association, he spoke to a crowd that
gathered at the American Legion Post 34 in Pasco.
Like others who spoke, Onley decried the hospital's elimination of
evening, weekend and inpatient services.
"There's always a budget for war money," Onley said. "But every year,
it's never mandated that they give us money to take care of the veterans
that sacrificed."
Dale Gerhke, a union official for nonprofessional employees at the Walla
Walla VA, said staff reductions in the works foretell further service
reductions.
The Veterans Administration is considering over the next two years
cutting 45 to 50 positions in services such as laundry, food, security
and direct patient care, Gerhke said. He cited a draft schedule for
creating a new outpatient clinic the secretary of the Veterans
Administration proposed for Walla Walla.
The schedule also proposes eliminating inpatient mental health service
and inpatient long-term residential care services currently being
provided at the hospital, Gerhke said.
Still, he emphasized he was thankful for Secretary James Nicholson's
move to keep services in Walla Walla by proposing the new outpatient
clinic.
"In the meantime, you have the footprint, and you can expand on it,"
Gerhke said. "We can always add services to it."
Not everyone who attended the rally agreed the hospital needs to be
restored.
Jim Jones, 61, of Walla Walla, who served in the Army Medical Service
from 1966-68, said he wouldn't want to get treatment at the VA. When he
recently needed to spend a week in the hospital for congestive heart
failure and pneumonia, he went to St. Mary Medical Center in Walla
Walla.
"It's my body, my health, and I want the best health care possible," he
said. "You can't get the best health care possible at the veterans
hospital."
He suggested the Veterans Administration should issue a national health
card that veterans could take to other medical providers and get
reimbursed for their costs.
Jones said many of the people attending the rally worked for or with the
VA and primarily were interested in trying to save their jobs.
But Don Schack, commander of the Blue Mountain Veterans Coalition and
master of ceremonies for the rally, said he isn't asking for the
"outstanding" service, only "adequate."
"We're asking for adequate care we were promised, you and I and all
other veterans," he said to the crowd.
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Larry Scott
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