Reid, Ensign call for VA clinic replacement

Friday, Sept. 20, 2002 | 10:45 a.m.

Nevada's two U.S. senators have sent a joint letter to Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi calling for a full-service medical center to replace the crumbling Addeliar D. Guy III VA Ambulatory Care Center.

Las Vegas veterans say they are happy Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., have fired "a first shot," but they believe it will take some time to build anything new.

The senators' letter dated Wednesday comes in the wake of the Department of Veterans Affairs' announcement last week that the Mike O'Callaghan Federal Hospital at Nellis Air Force Base has been selected as one of several sites to treat patients from the damaged and soon-to-close 5-year-old VA Guy clinic located at 1700 Vegas Drive, near the intersection of Martin Luther King Boulevard.

O'Callaghan Hospital will house the clinic's surgical specialty services while the primary care, medical specialty care, mental health clinic and administrative offices will be moved to yet-to-be-announced Las Vegas sites, the VA said.

Veterans groups have been told as many as seven additional sites may house veterans care services on a lengthy temporary basis.

The senators' joint statement reads in part: "We believe the VA can use this opportunity to better the availability of necessary healthy care services for hundreds of veterans. We feel strongly that this can be achieved with the construction of a new VA medical center in Las Vegas."

The VA currently is working on 55 projects costing $650 million, and is in the process of replacing some decaying facilities that date to the Civil War.

"What the senators are doing is firing a first shot in what I believe will one day be the construction of a full service veterans hospital in Las Vegas," said Ed Gobel, president of the Council of Nevada Veterans Organizations. "But we are looking at three to five years at best."

Gobel said Nevada currently is in the Southern California "Veterans Integral Service Network," a region that already has a VA hospital at Loma Linda.

"Nevada would have to be taken out of that VISN and put into a VISN with Arizona and another nearby state where Las Vegas would be the primary city and would get the veterans hospital," Gobel said. "That will take a while."

An Ensign spokeswoman said no discussions have been made regarding changing Nevada's Veterans Integral Service Network.

Jack Knutson, first vice commander of American Legion Post 8, said the senators are going "in the right direction" by acting on local veterans' concerns.

"I believe the way we should go is a full-service VA hospital," said Knutson, a 24-year Navy veteran. "Until then, it's going to be hard on veterans who can't get around too well."

That includes Jim Gaughan, who has a cardio-pulmonary ailment, is blind in one eye, has post-traumatic stress disorder and is rated 100 percent disabled.

"I hope I won't have to travel all around town for treatment," said Gaughan, an Army veteran of the Vietnam War who was at VFW Post 10047 Thursday.

"I moved here a year ago from Columbia, S.C., where they have a VA hospital that is outstanding. I've also received good treatment at the Las Vegas clinic, but now they are going to close it. I'm concerned."

Earlier this year, cracks were found in the foundation of the $16 million clinic. After studying the feasibility of repairing the facility, it was decided to move services until a permanent location is found.

No date has been set for closing the clinic.

Last week, John Hempel, chief executive officer of the Veterans Affairs Southern Nevada Health Care System, warned: "Splitting up our operations is a temporary measure that could last several years."

Meanwhile, Las Vegas officials are concerned the Guy clinic may fall into decay after it is vacated. City Councilman Lawrence Weekly and Mayor Oscar Goodman have asked City Manager Doug Selby for an action plan to be presented at the Oct. 2 City Council meeting.

"The concern is that once the building is abandoned, will maintenance be kept up on it and what security will be provided to keep out vagrants and others?" Selby said. "We are working now to prevent potential problems."

If the building does fall into decay, the city can demolish it and bill the owner for the costs.

Selby said that would be a last resort. Over the years, the city through its abatement ordinances has demolished a number of abandoned residential units that became havens for drug dealers and vagrants.