Seven VA Facilities Subject To Closure

August 2003

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The Department of Veterans Affairs has forwarded a plan to an independent CARES (Capital Asset Realignment for Enhanced Services) commission which aims to eliminate outdated or underused VA medical facilities and to continue shifting its focus to outpatient care. Under the plan, seven VA hospitals would be closed, two new ones would be opened, and the system would add 48 new clinics.

Closings would be at Gulfport, Miss.; Lexington, Ky.; Waco, Texas; Pittsburg; Canandaigua, N.Y.; Brecksville, Ohio; and Livermore, Calif.

New facilities would be hospitals in Las Vegas and Orlando, Fla.; centers for the blind in Biloxi, Miss., and Long Beach, Calif.; and spinal cord injury centers in Denver, Minneapolis, Syracuse or Albany, N.Y., and Little Rock, Ark.

The CARES Commission is scheduled to evaluate the plan and send final recommendations to the VA secretary for review by November 30, 2003.