Staff report
Secretary of Veterans Affairs James B. Peake said Wednesday he has asked his staff to “review and consider” concerns raised by U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole about planned changes at the Hefner VA Medical Center.
Peake made the statement in a letter to Dole, responding to her Oct. 1 and Oct. 8 letters to him. He said his staff is to provide him with the results of that review no later than Nov. 15, which would be 11 days after the Nov. 4 election.
It’s unclear whether any changes are actually being postponed because Carolyn L. Adams, director of the Hefner VA, said at an Oct. 10 news conference there is no timeline for the planned elimination of inpatient, emergency and medical services.
Also on Wednesday, N.C. Sen. Kay Hagan, Dole’s Democratic challenger, issued a statement calling on Peake to postpone any changes to the emergency room and other services at the Hefner Medical Center.
The Department of Veterans Affairs announced Sept. 8 its plans to eliminate the services as part of a transition to a long-term care and mental health facility for veterans.
The announcement prompted an outcry from veterans, employees and elected officials and has emerged as a key issue in local elections.
Peake wrote in his letter to Dole that the plan for the Hefner Medical Center “must and will consider and respect the perspectives of all stakeholders, especially our veteran patients and employees.” In addition, he said he would ensure that the plan provides personal assistance to veterans who may be affected by proposed changes.
His staff will also work with the employee union and individual employees who could be affected by changes, Peake said, to offer opportunities to continue working at the Salisbury VA or at other VA facilities. “I am confident the final plan for Salisbury and throughout North Carolina will ensure the clinical care needs of your state’s veterans are fully satisfied,” he said.
As part of the announced plan, primary-care services at VA clinics in Charlotte, Hickory and Winston-Salem would be expanded.
Dole wrote in her letter that while she understands and welcomes the need for increasing mental health and long-term care services for veterans of all generations, she is troubled by plans to do so by eliminating critical services such as emergency and inpatient surgical care.
“The plan to contract-out these services to regional hospitals raises many valid questions,” she wrote. “Among them, can the VA assure veterans that non-VA medical centers will provide the first-rate care they rightly have come to expect? Will receiving care from non-VA medical centers alter, to any extent, out-of-pocket expenses or upfront money required of veterans?”Is the VA confident that non-VA employees will understand and honor the sacrifices of veterans made on behalf of our proud nation?”
If there is any amount of hesitancy in answering any of these questions, Dole wrote, “I implore the VA to re-evaluate its options.”
Dole also questioned how the proposed changes would affect staff, saying all employees should be given opportunities to stay with the VA.
“These workers have given much to the veterans community,” she wrote. “We owe it to them to ease the burden of any proposed changes to the greatest extent possible.”
Hagan, a 10-year legislator and former corporate attorney from Greensboro, said veterans who depend on Hefner for emergency medical care have been calling her office, “worried sick about these proposed changes which seem to have come out of the blue.”
“They’re frustrated,” she said in a statement, “and I’m frustrated by the lack of communication, the lack of answers and the lack of sense this decision seems to make. Secretary Peake should postpone making the proposed changes at Hefner.
“Veterans that depend on the facility should be notified, and their concerns should be voiced and heard. Making this decision without the input of people who it affects the most seems hasty, and quite frankly, irresponsible.”
On Oct. 9, Hagan’s husband, Chip, a Vietnam veteran, attended a meeting in Salisbury for employees affected by the decision at the Hefner VA.