VA hospital funding approved

Suzanne Struglinski

Monday, Nov. 24, 2003 | 8:42 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Legislation that will provide $25 million in funding to get started on a new veterans hospital, outpatient clinic and long-term care facility for Las Vegas was passed Friday by the House.

The project still needs final approval and an exact location has not been selected, but at least the money is now earmarked to get the design under way, proponents of the project said.

"Providing high-quality health care is part of keeping our promise to America's heroes and sends an important message to our troops now deployed at home and abroad in the defense of our nation," Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said on the House floor Friday. "These future veterans, some of whom call Nevada home, will also one day be eligible for VA care. Investing now will ensure that we will be able to serve the health care needs of our veterans today and in the future."

During the next seven years the number of annual visits by veterans in the Las Vegas Valley to their primary health care clinic is expected to rise from 200,000 to more than a half-million, and the number of hospital beds needed will go up by 50 percent, said Berkley, a member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee.

The Department of Veterans Affairs proposed the hospital and a 120-bed nursing home through its Capital Asset Realignment for Enhanced Services, or CARES, program.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi will make a final decision on the CARES program early next year.

"Southern Nevada boasts one of the fastest growing veterans populations in the nation," Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said. "Yet, it does not have a full-service veterans hospital to meet their health care needs."

Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., also voted in favor of the bill.

"Authorizing money for this project is an important step forward to bringing quality health care to Nevada's veterans," Porter said.

The need for a full-service VA hospital became heightened in June when the Addeliar D. Guy III VA Ambulatory Care Clinic closed. The $16 million center, which opened in 1997 on Martin Luther King Boulevard, had building flaws, and services are now spread out among 15 temporary locations.

In September Berkley introduced legislation in the House to authorize $250 million to build a new VA hospital with an outpatient clinic and a long-term care facility in Southern Nevada on a yet-to-be identified 50-acre site.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., has introduced similar legislation in the Senate. On Wednesday the Senate also had approved $25 million for the design of the project.

Among the problems caused by the absence of a full-service VA hospital in Las Vegas is the need for many veterans to seek treatment out of state, Berkley said Friday.

"Last year, 1,500 Southern Nevada veterans were sent to neighboring states because we could not provide the needed services locally," Berkley said.

In late September Berkley urged the VA Capital Asset Realignment for Enhanced Services Committee to overcome the political pressure to keep older, underused East Coast VA hospitals open and support a new VA hospital for Las Vegas.

The CARES Committee visited Las Vegas as part of its 40-city fact-finding mission.