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thedrifter
08-19-06, 08:46 AM
Vets want clinic
August 19,2006
CHRIS MAZZOLINI
DAILY NEWS STAFF

Jacksonville’s veterans clinic is looking to move from its cramped location to a larger facility.

Yet Veterans Affairs officials say the number of staff and level of care will remain the same, a move unpopular with Onslow County veterans who say more inclusive care is needed for an area brimming with vets.

Rumors in recent months have declared that Veterans Affairs is planning to build a satellite outpatient clinic in the city, a mini-hospital that can handle nearly every health care issue besides inpatient care. Some stories had the clinic attached to the Freedom Shopping Center that will soon be built near the U.S. 17 bypass.

But those rumors are wrong, said Norma Byrd, a spokesman for the VA Medical Center in Fayetteville, which oversees community clinics in Jacksonville and Wilmington.

“We are not building a satellite outpatient clinic,” Byrd said. “We are looking for larger space in Jacksonville. Basically, we’ve outgrown the building there and are looking for larger space.”

The Hargett Street clinic has a staff of 12, which includes two full-time and one part-time primary health care provider. A social worker and a mental-health professional that can deal with issues such as combat stress and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder are also on staff.

The clinic opened in February 1999 with only one provider, Byrd said, and has grown accordingly within the building.

But there’s no more room to grow.

VA officials gave no definitive timetable for when the move would take place, only that relocation is something the department is investigating.

While Jacksonville may not be getting a satellite clinic, there are plans to upgrade Wilmington’s community clinic into a satellite clinic, said Dave Raney, a communication officer for the VA’s Mid-Atlantic Health Care Network, which oversees all the VA facilities in the region.

“We see the Wilmington hub in our future as one that’s becoming increasingly important in terms of the number of veterans in that area,” Raney said.

Packed every day

But more veterans live in Onslow County than New Hanover County. According to numbers supplied by the state Department of Veterans Services, 18,936 vets live in Onslow County. New Hanover has a veteran population of 18,245.

Randy Reichler, the retired affairs officer at Camp Lejeune, said the population of veterans in the county is surging as Marines and sailors leave the service and settle down in Jacksonville. About 42 percent of all retirees from Camp Lejeune stay in Onslow County after they leave the service. About 225 people retire from the service every three months, so about 400 new retirees settle in the county each year.

There is a need for a bigger satellite clinic in Jacksonville, Reichler said.

“If you go into the VA clinic here at any time, it’s packed,” he said. “It’s packed every day. I think there is real, justified reason to put one here. They could justify it with the numbers.”

Byrd said the Fayetteville Medical Center and its subsidiary clinics — the Jacksonville clinic and the community clinic in Wilmington — provide health care for 2,658 veterans from Onslow County.

While there’s a sizeable gap between that number and the roughly 19,000 vets who call Onslow County home, part of the discrepancy can be attributed to veterans who don’t use VA health care because they have insurance with their current employers or they are retirees who use Tricare.

But there are veterans in the county who don’t have health care.

“There’s no doubt about it,” said Reichler, who is also the commander of the local Disabled American Veterans chapter. “A lot of these veterans are not retired, they don’t have TRICARE available and they don’t have coverage because they work minimum wage.”

And while the Wilmington satellite clinic will increase the number of veterans from the county who can be seen, that expanded care is still more than 50 miles down U.S. 17.

Also, Reichler said Wilmington is closer to Fayetteville than Jacksonville is which restricts area veterans. According to a Mapquest search, it’s about 89 miles between Wilmington and Fayetteville. It’s about 95 from Jacksonville to Fayetteville.

Joe Traumer, commander of the Onslow County American Veterans (AMVETS) post, said he doesn’t understand why the VA doesn’t have a larger presence in Jacksonville.

“This is a large retirement home for the military in the area, yet we have one of the smallest clinics,” he said. “The clinicthey opened in Morehead City is bigger than the one in Jacksonville, the clinic in Wilmington is double ours. They’ve known we’ve been limited in space for years.

“There are many veterans here in Onslow County on a waiting list, and (the VA is) only allowed to see so many patients. If all the retirees and everyone who was in the service, if every one of them would file with the VA and say we want to get into the clinic … that should open up an eye and say we need a large facility here.”

Open to suggestions

The VA’s Raney said the department bases its facility decisions on current veteran populations and projected trends for the future.

“We get an awful a lot of requests to establish new facilities,” he said. “We take those requests very seriously and look at them in terms of a business model.”

Yet if area veterans disagree with the VA’s decision or wish to offer suggestions, Raney said they are more than willing to listen and see what can be done.

“Our network is very open to suggestions from local veterans,” he said. “We are very willing to listen and we welcome their ideas. We’ll work to look at that situation anew. Currently, we’ll have a larger facility in Jacksonville. That’s the plan, but we are certainly open to new ideas.

“We have looked very, very closely at the need for care, and the whole idea is we want to provide veterans for enhanced access to care closer to where veterans live. We want our veterans to know we care about their needs and we’re working hard to expand that care,” Raney said.

But there are still those waiting for care, said Reichler. He’s a retired Marine, and when his turn came up to use the VA clinic, he passed because he already had Tricare coverage.

“I had an opportunity to step into the VA clinic,” Reichler said. “I turned mine down so that another veteran that didn’t have coverage could use it.”

Contact staff writer Chris Mazzolini at cmazzolini@freedomenc.com or 353-1171, ext. 229

Ellie