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Politics & Government

Task Force Hears Vets' Health Care Issues In Berkeley

The first hearing held by the New Jersey Veterans' Hospital Task Force brings to light a variety of challenges for veterans seeking medical care

Herb Geller of Berkeley told the story of being on a bus from the Veterans Administration’s James J. Howard Outpatient Clinic in Brick Township to the VA hospital in East Orange.

“It was an hour ride, and there was a guy on the bus who couldn’t breathe,” Geller said, as he addressed the members of the New Jersey Veterans Hospital Task Force. “If we hadn’t had any liquids among those of us on the bus, who knows what kind of shape he would have been in?”

Geller, 73, was just one of those at Thursday’s hearing who shared stories of long bus rides for the most basic services. Gary DeRosa said he waited six weeks for a foot X-ray at the Brick clinic rather than take the ride to East Orange, because of the distance.

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“What’s shocking,” said state Sen. Christopher Connors, “is that on your way to East Orange you’re passing a lot of hospitals.”

Connors and his 9th district counterparts, Assemblyman Bryan Rumpf and Assemblywoman DiAnne Gove co-sponsored the legislation that established the task force with state Sen. Jeff Van Drew of the 3rd District, out of Cape May.

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Thursday’s hearing was the first for the task force, which is charged with studying, evaluating and making recommendations related to the construction and operation of a veterans’ health care facility in southern New Jersey. The group of 18 has a year to come up with recommendations for what can be done to provide better access to health care for veterans in the southern part of the state.

Holding the hearing in Berkeley Township was a conscious decision, because Berkeley has one of the highest veterans populations in the state, Connors and Van Drew said.

“A lot of our veterans’ families are older,” Berkeley Mayor Jason J. Varano said as he welcomed the task force. “Many don’t drive, which makes it harder for them.”

Berkeley Council President Carmen F. Amato, Jr., who had to leave the hearing early because of a family emergency, said in written remarks, “This task force is the first step toward providing our veterans with the care they deserve. Providing easy access is a start.”

Ease of access takes on many forms, as the veterans present on Thursday noted. A variety of issues were presented during the two-hour hearing, including lengthy delays in getting new veterans into the VA’s computer system to crowded waiting rooms and long waits for appointments at the current facilities in East Orange, Lyons, Philadelphia and Wilmington, Del.

“We are proud of our clinic in Brick Township,” said Ocean County Freeholder Gerry Little. “But clinics only address some issues.”

Rick Pitman, a retired executive of Shore Memorial Hospital in Atlantic County, said there were veterans receiving dialysis who were being sent by bus to Wilmington, Del., then from Wilmington to Philadelphia for treatment. It was only through extensive negotiations between the VA and the hospital over the possibility of providing dialysis services locally that they found out the VA had a contract with a private company to do just that.

James Egan, the new commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10185, which serves Berkeley and Toms River, said it’s not just the long travel times that are problematic. Often when a veteran goes to East Orange or Lyons for care, it’s an all-day trip, because they have to wait four hours or more to be seen.

Travel and wait times weren’t the only stories, however. Ralph Bove, who received a Purple Heart for his service in World War II, said he is trying to get a new claim opened for a treatment he needs.

“They told me it will take 18 to 24 months for it be processed,” Bove said. “I’m 88 years old. I’m not sure I’ll be around that long.”

Van Drew, who chairs the task force, said a number of the issues that came up – such as the long claims processing times and adding new veterans to the system, which currently takes more than a year from the time a serviceman or woman is discharged – were issues that are far beyond the scope of what the task force.

There’s no question there are systemic problems with the Veterans Administration, Van Drew said.

“Presidents haven’t been able to cure those. Generals haven’t been able to cure those,” he said. “As much as I hate to say it, we have to be parochial on this” and focus on getting better access to care for South Jersey veterans.

Raymond Zawacki, the state’s deputy commissioner for Veterans Affairs, said quantifying how many veterans are using those services is an important piece of pushing both the VA and the state to establish a more local facility for veterans – whether it’s a cooperative system with established local hospitals or setting up a new facility.

Zawacki noted there are 169,089 veterans in the eight counties covered by the task force – Ocean, Atlantic, Cape May, Gloucester, Salem, Burlington, Cumberland and Camden. Ocean County has an estimated 60,000 veterans, and of those, 9,650 received medical care from the VA last year.

“We know that number (9,650) is accurate because they track each patient by Social Security number,” Zawacki said. Across the eight counties, nearly 31,500 veterans received medical care last year, Zawacki said.

“It shows there’s a real need for services here,” he said.

Connors said he and Van Drew hope that South Jersey can make enough noise that the VA and the state will do something to address the problem.

“When you’re in South Jersey, you have to fight for everything,” Connors said. “We’ve learned to band together. Hopefully we can be a big enough pain that they do something to avoid the attention to the bigger problems.”

“I’m confident we can come achieve something,” Connors said.

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