Allen Bennett Available, but Greer Hospital Not in VA Plan
 Tomie Gaines, WWII Veteran representing Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW).
The availability of an operating medical facility that observers believe could be obtained at little or no cost could save the VA budget millions of dollars in design, construction and start-up costs.
U.S. Representative Bob Inglis arranged for a meeting of Veterans Health Administration officials with local veterans and representatives of the Greenville Hospital System Friday, December 7, 2007. Sen. Vaughn served as moderator of the meeting and hospital officials conducted a tour of the recently renovated and expanded emergency medical facility and patient wards.
Representatives of the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Veterans Service Corps of South Carolina, Disabled American Veterans, Veterans of the Korean War and Vietnam attended the meeting and provided input.
Many of the comments were polite and complementary of the current level of services provided to veterans. The long travel time to hospitals in Columbia, South Carolina or Asheville, North Carolina, and the fact that the VA only allows an inadequate 12 cents per mile for travel were cited by participants.
Brian Heckert, director of the Dorn VA Medical Center in Columbia, and Larry Biro, Southeast Network Director for the VA, said the VA is in the process of contracting for a few hospital beds for veterans in the area as well as for some specialized medical services the VA is not currently staffed to provide.
Biro stated emphatically that the VA has a plan for the future, and a veterans hospital in Upstate South Carolina is not part of the plan. He gave no encouragement that the plan could be revised to include taking over Allen Bennett hospital even to consolidate operations of the leased Greenville VA Clinic facility and a planned VA Clinic in Spartanburg that has not yet been constructed.
Representatives of most of the local veterans organizations seemed to agree that additional facilities are needed in the area and that taking over Allen Bennett in order to consolidate the Greenville and Spartanburg clinics and provide a number of hospital beds locally would be an economical way to improve health care for the thousands of veterans residing in Upstate South Carolina.
At the conclusion of the meeting, it was clear that the VA would not likely take the initiative to verify the economic feasibility of the proposal to take over Allen Bennett unless political pressure is exerted on the Veterans Administration by the South Carolina Congressional Delegation.
Representatives of seven veteran’s organizations signed a resolution to be delivered to Sen. Lindsey Graham, Sen. Jim DeMint and Rep. Bob Inglis stating that the American Legion, Disabled American Veterans, Korean War Veterans Association, Marine Corps League, Military Officers Association of America, American Ex-Prisoners of War and Veterans of Foreign Wars “resolve that our National Veterans Service Organizations strongly support the need to provide the best, most assessable and timely care for our veterans who have earned these services with their many sacrifices for our freedoms.”
The Resolution recognizes the “immediate need to provide local inpatient service to an aging veteran population,” that numbers some 61,000 in the Upstate of South Carolina. It recognizes Sen. Vaughn’s research that revealed that Allen Bennett is available, newly renovated with 6 million dollars plus improvements and enhancements and is available for immediate occupancy.
The facility could be used to combine the Greenville and Spartanburg clinics and save thousands of dollars in travel costs to Asheville, Augusta, Columbia and Charleston medical facilities for tests and treatment.
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