VA Services May Move From Valley

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is considering a plan to move rare and expensive patient diagnostic procedures from its Sepulveda Ambulatory Care Center to its West Los Angeles facility as a cost-savings measure, an agency official said Friday.

Although a final decision has not been made, those who rely on the clinic for medical and counseling services say the move would portend the eventual closure of a facility that primarily serves veterans living in the San Fernando Valley and northern Los Angeles County.

Under the proposal, rare and costly nuclear medicine procedures would be performed at the Wadsworth Veterans Administration Medical Center in West Los Angeles, said Charles Dorman, executive director for the Veterans Affairs Department’s Greater Los Angeles Ambulatory Care Services.

Patients needing specialized dermatological or radiological examinations would see their primary care physician at Sepulveda, and that doctor would then set up a teleconference with a specialist at Wadsworth, Dorman said. General radiology would remain available at Sepulveda.

Dorman said before any changes are made, the agency will consult with Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-Santa Clarita), Rep. Howard Berman (D-Mission Hills) and with a newly formed veterans advisory council. Those meetings are expected to take place in the next few weeks.

Dorman said the potential changes are considered necessary because annual federal appropriations have not kept pace with the rising number of patients seeking care at medical facilities in the agency’s Desert Pacific network, which serves Los Angeles, San Diego and San Bernardino counties as well as greater Las Vegas.

“The workload has grown in Los Angeles, but it has not grown as fast as in Las Vegas and San Diego and San Bernardino counties,” Dorman said. “To meet those needs, we have to shift resources from Los Angeles.”

Some Veterans Fear Clinic Will Be Closed

Even so, veterans such as David L. Folck of Mission Hills consider the potential loss of nuclear medicine, radiology and dermatology services another step toward the eventual closure of the North Hills campus, despite a promise made in November by U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi to keep it open.

“Many vets who have learned about this cutback at Sepulveda are not happy about it and want the VA to cease cutting back services,” Folck said. “Many veterans are willing to demonstrate and be heard on this.”

Dorman said he is sympathetic to the veterans’ concerns and encourages them to press their congressional representatives to make veterans’ medical care a mandatory funding appropriation.

“When you are used to having services nearby, you feel like they are being taken away,” he said. “We are looking for a way to maintain or improve care, but it may not be as convenient.”