By Nick Buglione
For years, local veterans have had to trek out to Suffolk County's Northport VA Medical Center -- roughly a 60-mile round trip from East Meadow -- to receive the care they are guaranteed because of wartime military service.
But as these World War II, Korea and Vietnam veterans age and their medical needs increase, they say that making it all the way to Northport is becoming difficult, and they argue that a centrally located facility in Nassau County is needed.
"World War II veterans are in their 80s, Korean War veterans are in their 70s, and Vietnam veterans are in their 60s; everybody needs some medical attention at those ages," said Sam DiPalo, commander of the East Meadow Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2736. "Right now, most veterans that need medical attention have to go to Northport."
DiPalo and his fellow VFW members believe Nassau University Medical Center would be an ideal place for veterans to receive health care, and have lobbied the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to consider it for several years now. Just recently, DiPalo once again started up his crusade, soliciting the help of local elected officials and other veterans groups.
"We're pushing to see if we can get anybody to rally with us," DiPalo said. "With all of us making a little noise, it becomes a big noise."
Suffering from poor eye sight, chronic foot problems and diabetes, the 79-year-old World War II veteran makes frequent trips to Northport and knows first-hand how inconvenient they are. It starts with finding a ride. "A lot of veterans don't have enough people who can [drive them]," DiPalo said. "Sometimes my wife drives me, or my neighbor. It's not that easy."
Once he has a ride, it takes about an hour to drive there and back if he's fortunate enough to miss the traffic.
Although the county Veterans Service Agency does offer rides to Northport for veterans, there aren't enough to accommodate everyone, said Lenny Latzman, president of the East Meadow United Veterans Council. More than 107,000 veterans live in Nassau County, according to the 2000 U.S. census.
"They could use more of that," said Latzman, who is also a member of the Jewish War Veterans Post 709. "You have to make arrangements two weeks in advance to get the service."
In 1996, the Northport VA Medical Center opened a primary-care facility in Plainview, essentially a doctor's office where Nassau's veterans could go for checkups and other minor treatments in lieu of traveling to Suffolk.
But the Plainview office is often overcrowded and doesn't offer the same level of care as the hospital, veterans said. "If you need X-rays, if you need an MRI, you have to go to Northport," said DiPalo, adding that Nassau, Suffolk and Queens counties all have a comparable number of veteran residents, but only Nassau lacks its own VA hospital. "The need for facilities in Nassau County are great."
Nassau University Medical Center President Richard Turan favors adding veteran health-care services at his hospital and has voiced his support fore the project in the past. "I would be very happy to do it," he said. "We have contacted Veterans Affairs probably going back two years now, and we said we'd be very happy to work with them."
NUMC has enough space to accommodate Nassau's veterans, Turan insists, but, he adds, there are "financial implications to this."
The county Veterans Service Agency is moving the Plainview clinic and is considering NUMC as a potential new site, as well as locations in Westbury, Bethpage and Hempstead, said Director Edward Aulman. "There is a problem with parking, and we still have to figure out how much the costs will be," Aulman said, noting that the available space at NUMC is in need of renovations that could prove too expensive.
Even if they were to move the clinic there, veterans would essentially get the same services at NUMC that they now get in Plainview. That means that if they needed extensive care, they would still have to go to Northport. "Northport is not going to give up its responsibilities," Aulman said.
Northport is, however, proposing to open another clinic, similar to the one in Plainview, on the South Shore near the Nassau-Suffolk border, said Joe Sledge, hospital spokesman. "In addition to the relocation of the Plainview facility, there is in our plan an additional site for primary care either in or near the Nassau border," he said.
That plan, however, is subject to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' approval. A decision is expected by the fall.
