N.J. Senate Pushes for New VA Hospital

TRENTON, N.J. — The New Jersey State Senate recently approved SR28, a resolution that asks the United States Congress to enact legislation establishing a regional veterans’ medical facility in southern New Jersey.

 

The is currently is no Department of Veterans Affairs inpatient medical center in the south part of the state. While the VA has established small clinics in Ventnor, Cape May and Vineland, they are only equipped to perform certain types of outpatient medical services. These regional clinics are often overwhelmed by a large number of veterans seeking care, forcing veterans to travel to northern New Jersey, Pennsylvania or Delaware to receive services, according to state legislators.

 

The copy of the state resolution has also been sent to President Obama and Vice President Biden, the Speaker Nancy Pelosi, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, and to the majority and minority leaders of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

 

“This resolution will send a clear message to the federal government that the entire New Jersey Senate embraces the establishment of a veterans’ facility in the southern part of the state, and recognizes that veterans in our region deserve the same access to health care services as veterans in Wilmington, Philadelphia, and North Jersey,” says N.J. Sen. Jeff Van Drew, D-Cape May, who sponsored the resolution.

 

Passage of SR28 in the state legislature comes just weeks after the senate Military and Veterans’ Affairs Committee held an off-site meeting at the Somers Point VFW Post in Atlantic County, where dozens of veterans told stories of having to travel for more than an hour, and sometimes taking daylong trips, to get to a veterans’ hospital.

 

Van Drew has also sponsored legislation to create a task force to study expanding healthcare services for veterans in southern New Jersey. Under the bill, the panel would be given a year to develop recommendations for the construction and operation of a veterans health care facility in the region, or for contracting with an existing health care facility to provide services to veterans.