EDITORIAL: Best medicine for aging veterans? To keep VA medical services centered in Fresno

May 5—The Veterans Affairs Medical Center in central Fresno opened in 1950, and today serves more than 31,000 former military members in the Central California region.

It is understandable that the hospital and associated services have grown tight on space at the location at East Clinton Avenue and North Fresno Street. Parking for staff and patients is at a premium, for example, and when their vehicles spill over into surrounding residential neighborhoods, some friction results.

Veterans Affairs owns a 9-acre parcel of land in Clovis, and Fresno Bee/Fresnoland Lab reporter Danielle Bergstrom last week broke the news that the VA was considering locating some operations from the Fresno hospital to the Herndon Avenue-Armstrong Avenue property.

Would such a move involve parts of the medical operation? Would it be just a parking area for staff who work at the Fresno location? Or would the hospital itself be built anew in Clovis?

Clovis officials are excited at the prospect of gaining a new tenant in what is their city's main area for medical care. The VA's property is near Clovis Community Medical Center and other medical offices.

But Fresno officials say VA Central California administrators have assured them the hospital will remain where it is, and that just new services are contemplated for Clovis.

The best idea would be to keep all services centralized in Fresno. That is the least disruptive to the service members and keeps sprawl to a minimum. The Clovis land can be used for staff parking.

Keep hospital in Fresno

As California and the nation continue to wrestle with meeting challenges created by climate change, the era of urban sprawl is rapidly coming to an end. The logic of moving a hospital from a central spot to an urban fringe, which is where the northeast Clovis property is, does not make sense.

Then there are the patients themselves. Aging veterans used to getting help where the hospital is now should not have to face the prospect of change.

That said, the VA does need more room to expand services. Ideally, the VA would look inside Fresno itself for places closer to the hospital where those services could be located.

"The expansion project is in its infancy stage of development," Will McCullough, public affairs officer for VA Central California, told Bergstrom in an emailed statement. "Originally slated for parking, follow-on projects may eventually include additional infrastructure and the development of several clinics located at the Clovis property. The clinics will supplement the Health Care System's main veterans hospital in Fresno."

Keeping the hospital where it has been since 1950 remains the best idea. Putting additional services in Fresno, and keeping the Clovis property for staff parking, is better still.

___

(c)2021 The Fresno Bee (Fresno, Calif.)

Visit The Fresno Bee (Fresno, Calif.) at www.fresnobee.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.