Shea-Porter Asks Manchester VA Medical Center to be Restored
VETERANS
Union Leader
Matt Negrin
Boston University Washington News Service
30 January 2008
WASHINGTON — Rep. Carol Shea-Porter requested Wednesday that a veterans’ hospital in Manchester be restored to full service status, marking the congresswoman’s most recent effort to improve veterans’ medical conditions.
In a letter to Veterans Affairs Secretary James Peake, Shea-Porter cites New Hampshire as the only state without a “full-service veterans’ hospital” and comes after she was invited to tour and review the Manchester VA Medical Center earlier this month. The Democrat had written a similar letter last Oct. 5, to Gordon Mansfield, then the acting secretary.
The Manchester hospital has been inadequate, advocates say, since it cut many of its inpatient and outpatient services more than seven years ago.
Sen. John Sununu also urged Peake last week to consider fully restoring the hospital. In a resolution, the New Hampshire Senate also unanimously called for full renovation, saying New Hampshire veterans are forced to seek care in Massachusetts and Vermont.
“In no other state in this country does this happen, and it places our veterans’ health and care at serious risk,” Shea-Porter said in her letter.
The Department of Veterans Affairs did not respond to phone calls seeking comment.
Sen. Judd Gregg said yesterday he has worked to decrease veteran referrals to Boston while creating outpatient centers in New Hampshire cities.
“I am always available to assist any New Hampshire veteran in receiving the care he or she earned and which is rightly owed to them,” Gregg said in a statement.
Shea-Porter is a member of the House Armed Services Committee and touts her history of fighting for soldiers and their families. She helped pass a funding increase in the Department of Veterans Affairs, advocated for a 3.5 percent military pay raise and co-sponsored legislation to improve treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury.
President Bush nominated Peake, a retired lieutenant general, a last October and the Senate confirmed him on Dec. 14. He was Army surgeon general from 2000 to 2004 and was the executive vice president of Project HOPE, a nonprofit health organization.
When Peake was confirmed, Bush said one of his priorities would be acting on recommendations from a 2007 report on veterans’ care.
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