Vietnam veteran Jim Duncan’s appointment at Denver’s run-down, cramped VA hospital was recently delayed for the fourth time — pushed from January to April.
Duncan, who waited Wednesday to pick up a prescription at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center pharmacy, was among dozens of veterans who griped about conditions at the current hospital and celebrated word that a new, state-of-the-art hospital is coming.
“They need to get started on it,” he said. “There are a lot of young men and women coming back. It makes some of us feel that we’re taking up space, and these young kids really need it.”
The preliminary-construction phase of a stand-alone, 200-bed hospital at the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora will start within 90 days, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki announced Wednesday in Washington.
The decision ends uncertainty that has swirled around the project for nearly a decade, as the originally conceived $1.1 billion hospital on the Aurora campus fell victim to a swamp of budget issues and shifting bureaucratic priorities.
The new hospital — slightly smaller than the original 240-bed plan — will be finished by 2013, Shinseki said. Major construction should start next year.
“I know after 10 long years, this is an exciting announcement for you. But I will tell you, after eight short weeks, it’s an exciting announcement for me also,” the newly appointed Shinseki told members of Colorado’s congressional delegation.
The 800,000-square-foot hospital will include beds for acute nursing-home patients as well as a 30-bed spinal-cord injury center, said Glen Grippen, director of the VA Rocky Mountain Network.
“It’s going to be a great facility to take us into the 21st century,” said Grippen, standing before hospital employees and veterans in front of the current, nearly 60-year-old hospital near East Ninth Avenue and Colorado Boulevard.
VA officials were unsure how much the hospital would cost, but Grippen said President Barack Obama’s budget due next month will include money for the project. Congress has authorized $568 million.
For veterans, 56,000 of whom use the existing hospital each year, the announcement was a long time coming.
“We deserve it,” said John Scott, 81, an Air Force veteran of the Korean War.
Vietnam veteran William Fresch, 66, said he has been waiting more than a year for a surgeon to look at the tendons in his hands, torn up by “trigger finger” stress. He was grateful for the new hospital but said that by 2013, many older veterans won’t be alive to use it.
Common complaints aren’t about the care but about parking, long waits and general conditions — such as plastic and boards covering a construction area near one of the waiting rooms.
“This place isn’t near big enough,” said Glenn More, a Vietnam veteran with lung cancer.
The modern design of the new hospital, with more outpatient exam rooms, is expected to speed up the process of care, said Jay Bobick, president of the United Veterans Committee of Colorado.
Former VA Secretary Jim Nicholson, a one-time Colorado resident, said he felt “vindicated” by the decision. He revived the project after taking office in 2005.
“The veterans need this state-of-the-art facility, and they deserve it,” he said.
Shinseki also announced two new health care centers — one in Colorado Springs and one in Billings, Mont. — as well as eight new rural health care sites throughout the region.
The new initiatives will mean 92 percent of Colorado veterans will live within one hour of VA primary care and 81 percent will live within two hours of a medical center, Shinseki said.
