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Veterans Express Anger Over New VA Hospital Plan

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Jun 1, 2008 4:48 pm US/Mountain

Veterans Express Anger Over New VA Hospital Plan

DENVER (AP) ― The Veterans Administration's latest plan for a hospital in the Denver area would shrink demands on Denver and add more clinics and home health care throughout the West.

VA officials discussed the plan Friday in a sometimes contentious meeting with a roomful of veterans, many of whom expressed anger over delays in the project that has been through three plans under three VA secretaries since 2001.

Veterans groups had no input on the latest plan.

The plan focuses on expanding care in outlying areas, with more home health care and consultations by phone and the Internet, said Glen Grippen, director of the Veterans Integrated Service Network that covers Colorado, Montana, Wyoming and Utah.

Declining numbers of veterans and increasing need for outpatient services led the VA to consider an approach that expands services in Colorado Springs; Grand Junction; Cheyenne, Wyo.; and Helena and Billings, Mont.

The plan includes a 115,000-square-foot, $10 million Ambulatory Care Center in Colorado Springs that could be operated by the Army and the VA. It also would expand a primary, dental and mental health care clinic in Colorado Springs.

The plan calls for a VA Ambulatory Health Care Center at Fitzsimons for primary and specialty care, outpatient surgery and a nursing home care unit. The VA would share two new towers with the University of Colorado-Denver, one with in-patient beds and the other devoted to research.

Veterans groups were upset about reduced plans for spinal cord injuries. An original plan called for a dedicated spinal cord injury center with 50 in-patient beds. The current plan reduces that to eight beds.

So far, $168 million has been appropriated for the project, and a bill for $700 million more is working its way through Congress.

(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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