Transfer of Veterans to Other State Homes Generates Anger

As about 90 old and frail residents of the troubled California Veterans Home in Barstow begin moving to the state’s two other nursing homes for veterans, they are displacing -- and rankling -- others on long waiting lists for those homes.

“They’re trying to get me to die before I get in there. That’s what it looks like to me,” said Richard Yale, 92, who was a radar instructor in the Navy from 1943 to 1945 and has Parkinson’s disease.

Yale has been on the waiting list for the veterans home in Chula Vista, near San Diego, since May 2001. He is one of 111 veterans hoping for a bed in the skilled-nursing unit.

Because of allegations of patient mistreatment and several deaths on the skilled nursing wing at the Barstow home, however, that unit is being closed. Veterans there have priority for any vacant beds in nursing units at Chula Vista or Yountville in coming months.

About 150 veterans are waiting for beds in Yountville, and some have been on the list since 1998, said Andrew Kotch, spokesman for the California Department of Veterans Affairs.

The veterans homes are popular because care is heavily subsidized; the out-of-pocket cost of living there is far less than at private nursing homes.

Kotch said his agency has an obligation to tend first to veterans who already live in the homes, not those on the waiting lists.

“It’s unfortunate as some of them never make it into the home because of these waits,” he said. “We sympathize and we’re trying the best we can.”

Within the past 2 1/2 weeks, nine veterans have been moved from the skilled nursing unit at Barstow and bused to Chula Vista, Kotch said.

“Obviously, we do understand the displeasure and discomfort that this may impose upon some people in line,” Kotch said. “But we have to address a quality-of-care issue here.”

State Sen. Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield) said it is inexcusable to close the Barstow skilled-nursing unit when veterans are waiting to get into the other homes.

“This is just further reason why this is a very unwise move,” he said. “Not only do we jeopardize the health of the residents at Barstow who may be moved to Chula Vista or Yountville, but we perhaps jeopardize those who cannot get into the facilities for which they have been waiting.”

The state is adding beds to the veterans home system. In March, the VA opened 60 more skilled nursing beds at the Chula Vista home. And by summer, another 60 beds will be opened, bringing the total to 180, Kotch said.

In addition, the state plans to build five veterans homes in California, including three in the Southland. Architectural planning should begin in the next couple of months for homes in Lancaster, Saticoy and West Los Angeles. The Lancaster home is slated to open first, in 2006.

But Kotch said the state has 3 million veterans, and there will never be enough room for all who need nursing care. Before 1996, he said, the state had only one veterans home, in Yountville, which was founded in 1884.

Richard Yale Jr., whose father is waiting to get into Chula Vista, said the state is shirking its responsibility to veterans. He is trying to draw attention to the problem.

“I’m not doing it just for him. I’m doing it for the whole group,” said Yale, 67, a former Air Force test pilot. “The way I see it, they’re treating them like cans of soup, and they’re not giving them the dignity that they deserve.”