VA TO CLOSE WALLA WALLA HOSPITAL AND REPLACE IT WITH

AN OUTPATIENT CLINIC -- Full-service facility to be closed.  VA

Secretary Nicholson says new clinic will provide outpatient

services including primary care and mental health care.

Background here... http://www.vawatchdog.org/old%20newsflashes%20JUN%2006/newsflash06-12-2006-2.htm

Well, we finally know the fate of the Walla Walla, Washington VA hospital.  It will be closed.

In its place will be a new outpatient clinic.

This is one of those good news / bad news stories.

It's good that Eastern Washington vets will have a clinic...but, it's bad that their full-service facility will be closing.

Also, this will mean time and expense for vets to travel to other VA facilities for specialty care.  And that really isn't good news.

What I find most amazing about this story is the way the VA has put the "Nicholson spin" on it.

Note the headline below.  It doesn't say that the VA is closing a major facility...it says they are building a new clinic.

Shame on the press for falling for this nonsense.  And, shame on Secretary Nicholson for closing Walla Walla and leaving veterans with just a clinic.

Story here... http://www.spokesmanreview.com/breaking/story.asp?ID=6996

Story below:

--------------- 

VA to build new Walla Walla clinic

Associated Press

WALLA WALLA, Wash. (AP) — A new outpatient clinic will replace an aging hospital here, providing medical care for veterans in the region, Veterans Affairs Secretary James Nicholson said today.

The Jonathan M. Wainwright Memorial Veterans Affairs Medical Center, which serves some 69,000 veterans in southeastern Washington and neighboring states, had been threatened with closure for several years.

The new facility will provide state-of-the-art outpatient services, including primary care and mental health care, Nicholson said in a statement.

“Walla Walla veterans will get a modern outpatient facility that continues the high quality of care they receive from VA,” Nicholson said.

Nicholson said the new facility will be located on the 84-acre Walla Walla hospital campus. The VA will use the rest of the campus for housing and other services for veterans.

The hospital in Walla Walla, a city of 30,000, serves veterans in Eastern Washington, northern Idaho and northeastern Oregon. Saving the hospital became a bipartisan effort for lawmakers from Washington and Idaho, with Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.; Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho; and U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris, R-Wash., taking up the cause.

Details about the cost and timetable for building the new facility, and the fate of the existing Wainwright hospital, were not immediately disclosed.

The VA statement came ahead of a 2 p.m. announcement Nicholson was scheduled to make at a news conference in Walla Walla. He was to be joined by McMorris, whose district includes the medical center, and Max Lewis, director of the VA regional office responsible for Walla Walla.

“This announcement marks the end of a long process that has focused on keeping care in Walla Walla,” McMorris said in the VA’s statement.

The VA said it will include nursing home care, residential rehabilitation, inpatient health care and inpatient mental health services in Walla Walla, although not necessarily on the VA campus.

Nicholson said the Walla Walla complex first opened in 1929, and no major improvements had been made on the campus in 50 years. The VA since 2004 has been evaluating services at 17 facilities across the country.

In late April, officials from the Walla Walla area went to Washington, D.C. to offer a proposal that would allow the VA to continue offering health care to veterans, while reducing the costs of maintaining the sprawling hospital complex.

The medical center has 350 jobs and an annual payroll of $18 million to $20 million.

Other VA medical centers in the region are in Spokane, Seattle and Portland. The district also has clinics in Richland, Yakima., and Lewiston.

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Larry Scott

(go back to VA Watchdog dot Org Home Page)

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