Editorial: Helping veterans

Saturday, June 23, 2007 | 7:13 a.m.

A p anel created by Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson will meet next week in Las Vegas to discuss ways to improve services to veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which is an admirable goal.

Although the visit to Las Vegas, complete with a town hall meeting Wednesday night, is appreciated, it is time the VA do more than talk.

Nicholson created this panel in May, a few weeks after he presented President Bush with a task force report outlining ways government could improve services to veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. If the administration really wants to improve veterans services, it could speed up work on the replacement of the VA's 150,000-square-foot Addeliar Guy Ambulatory Clinic, which was closed in 2003 because of alleged structural problems in the building. Instead of using the facility, which consolidated many services, veterans are forced to use the VA's satellite clinics or travel to Los Angeles for acute care because of the lack of facilities and specialists in Las Vegas.

As reported this week by Ed Koch in the Las Vegas Sun, a promised replacement for the Guy clinic, which the state's congressional delegation has long championed, will not open until at least 2011.

"I don't know what they are coming out here for," said Las Vegan Morley Gordon, a veteran of the Korean War. "The VA has already done the damage by wrongfully shutting down the Guy clinic in 2003."

He said unless the VA can speed up the building of a replacement facility, "there is not a lot they can do to improve things here."

If the VA really wants to improve care, it should quit talking about it and start doing it. Speeding up the opening of the clinic would be a good first step.