By JOHN W. BARRY
POUGHKEEPSIE JOURNAL
(Original Publication: October 20, 2007)
The U.S. Veterans Administration plans to build a new hospital at Castle Point in Fishkill, according to Nancy Winter, public affairs officer for the VA Hudson Valley.
The new hospital is part of a plan to overhaul the veterans hospitals at Castle Point and Montrose. The plan also calls for the relocation to Castle Point of veterans in the residential treatment program at Montrose.
That program consists of services for post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse and homelessness.
Also, a multi-specialty ambulatory care facility will be built at Montrose.
Congress must allocate funding for these plans, Winter said. She did not know when ground would be broken or when the project is expected to be completed.
The upgrades were announced yesterday by acting Secretary of Veterans Affairs Gordon H. Mansfield.
Terry Meyer of Plattekill, in Ulster County, a Vietnam vet who retired as an Army first sergeant in 1996, called the new hospital at Castle Point "a great idea," as it is a convenient location for Hudson Valley veterans.
Meyer is commander of Brannen-Vandenberg VFW Post 8645 in New Paltz. His son served three tours of duty with the Marine Corps in Iraq during the present conflict. Meyer's wife is a veteran of the first Gulf War and served 15 years in the Army Reserve and six in the Air National Guard based at Stewart Airport in Newburgh.
"The vets in this area are just increasing and health care is getting backed up for a lot of these kids coming home," Meyer said.
Nationwide, there are 27 million military veterans, with 1.4 million in New York state, 23,000 in Dutchess County and 48,000 in Westchester.
The veterans hospitals in Castle Point and Montrose in 2006 treated 26,000 veterans.
The Veterans Administration will explore reuses of buildings and land left vacant by the planned upgrade.
Yesterday's announcement follows a study launched in 2004 that analyzed VA health care facilities nationwide.
A spokeswoman for Rep. John Hall, D-Dover Plains, a member of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs and chairman of its Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs, said any VA decision about Montrose and Castle Point must be guided by the principle of the CARES decision to do "what is best for our veterans, not what is most beneficial for the VA bureaucracy."
CARES is the Capital Asset Realignment for Enhanced Services, a process to prepare the Veterans Administration to meet the needs of veterans with modern health care facilities.
"At first glance the VA announcement would get mixed grades at best," said Meaghan Smith, Hall's communications director. "Although it appears that the decision maintains and improves important services at both facilities, it's disappointing that a reduction in nursing home, psychiatric, and spinal cord services at Montrose, which would force veterans and their families to travel unreasonable distances for care, still seems to be in the works."
She said the congressman would continue to evaluate the VA's decision to see exactly how it will impact local veterans.