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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 12, 2007
CONTACT: Geoff Embler or Jamie Loftus
Sen. Hutchison Questions VA Secretary on Status of Valley VA Hospital Study in Hearing
WASHINGTON -- U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Ranking Member of the Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee, today questioned VA Secretary Jim Nicholson at a subcommittee hearing about the study she commissioned to evaluate the need for a Valley Veterans hospital.
“Secretary Nicholson assured me today that the study I requested in February 2006 to determine the need to establish a Veterans hospital in the Valley will be completed by July,” Sen. Hutchison said. “This study has taken an awfully long time and I am anxious to learn the results. Our veterans in the Valley deserve accessible, quality care.”
The questions at the hearing on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs 2008 budgetary needs followed a letter Sen. Hutchison sent to Secretary Nicholson on April 5 expressing her concern for the healthcare needs of Valley veterans and inquiring when the results of the study she requested will be available. Below is a copy of the letter:
Dear Secretary Nicholson:
As you recall last February, I asked you to determine an approach to meeting the inpatient health care needs for the veterans in the South Texas Valley for the next 20 years. I was pleased that you contracted with an analysis firm to conduct this study. I was informed that as part of their analysis they held several group meetings in San Antonio, Corpus Christi, McAllen and Harlingen.
I have since learned that initial comments from the contractor indicated that the need for additional outpatient services is a problem as well. I was pleased to learn that as a result you asked the contractor to look deeper into this area rather than wait and conduct a second study.
The medical care for the veterans in the South Texas Valley is a great concern of mine and I am anxious to learn, the results of your study. Please inform me as to when we will be able to discuss the results.
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