The Veterans Administration Medical Center in Roseburg has been warning veterans for months that a shutdown of their emergency department could be imminent. Now, that warning has become a reality.
Instead of a full emergency department, the Roseburg VA has decided to operate a Monday through Friday urgent care clinic in its place. VA officials cited the difficulty in hiring specialized staff, such as lab technicians, who are needed to support an emergency care facility. Keith Allen is the director of the Roseburg VA. He says he hopes the center could restore emergency care, but…
"I don’t think we’ll ever get the services back. A lot of them, they’re not available to us anymore. We’ve had no luck in recruiting," he says, "My goal would be to bring enough of the services back that I could provide urgent care seven days a week."
Allen says veterans will still get the same primary care services the center provides, but will have to go to another local hospital for emergency care.
The urgent care service is set to start on August 16th.