According to the Lehigh Valley Military Affairs Council, at least 50,000 veterans live in Northampton and Lehigh County. If eligible for health care, they can visit a clinic located in Allentown. But its hours are limited and the clinic is closed on weekends. For serious care, vets need to travel to the VA Medical Center in Wilkes-Barre. I think it's time that one be established here and know the perfect spot - the former Allentown State Hospital.
City Center is currently considering how to develop these site. I'm sure they'd welcome a VA hospital located close to center of the Lehigh Valley.
Congressperson Sue Wild likes to tell everyone that she is the daughter of a career military father, so perhaps she can deliver on something that helps our retired military.
Speaking of veterans, I'm told that Northampton County is establishing a Veterans Court. This would bein addition to a Drug and Mental Health Court currently in operation. When I get more details, I will share them.
Here you go:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.lehighvalleylive.com/news/2023/08/northampton-county-introduces-special-court-program-for-veterans.html
Anything but warehousing for welfare recipients.
ReplyDeleteHard to believe that a population center at least double, maybe triple, that of Scranton-Wilkes-Barre doesn't have a full service medical center. Someone in that región must have had out of proportion political clout at the federal level.
ReplyDeleteThank Dan Flood and the corrupt political machine in NE PA. that created our current President.
DeleteAnother building for vets to wait in years long lines is perfect. In the meantime, let's send another $450 million to support neonazi vets in Ukraine, the quagmire where nobody seems to want to call for a ceasefire or peace negotiation. Bernie, have you sent those suffering Ukrainian vets a check? You love them more than our vets.
ReplyDeleteWas there ever any doubt JB Reilly would end up with this property? I believe there was some sort of effort to prevent folks from knowing the true figures, but he probably paid less than it cost the city/state to raze the site. Hoping the taxpayers pay for all of his construction costs on this one too.
ReplyDeleteThat’s the worst suggestion I’ve ever heard.
ReplyDeleteWe have two major health systems in the Valley that provide excellent care.
Instead of sentencing our veterans to the inferior care of the VA system that’s run by politicians, why not allow our veterans to choose to access the same high level care that the rest of us can access?
Being used as pawns to perpetuate a failed system isn’t what our veterans need, and it’s certainly not what they deserve.
Isn't that what Trump did? Veteran's Choice?
DeleteThat is what should be done, and I think it says a lot about you that you choose to make it political.
DeleteWhile I do commend Trump for improving what the VA had been under Obama, I think we know that it’s a broken system that continues to fail our veterans.
I think giving our veterans a choice of whatever they view as their best option for care is part of what we owe them for their service to our country.
I would hope that’s something we can all get behind, regardless of party.
BOH
ReplyDeleteNot only is the Allentown clinic offer limited hours, it's miles from anything!
6:22, He paid far less for the site than it cost the state to raze.
ReplyDelete"We have two major health systems in the Valley that provide excellent care."
ReplyDeleteNo we don't. They are money making machines that soak everyone. Lehigh Valley Hospital in Muhlenberg is a pigsty. Ask anyone who has been there recently. This is what I hear from other seniors who are forced to go there. I cannot speak to St.Luke's, but its very name is dishonest. It is no university, but is now trying to pretend it is. I think the care they offer is inferior, and most people who can afford to go to Philly do so.
Are any of those people that are bypassing LVH or St. Luke’s going to a VA Medical Center in Philly?
DeleteHave you ever heard of anyone at LVH or St. Luke’s say they’d rather be in the VA system because they’d get better care there?
Yeah, I didn’t think so.
I rest my case [mic drop].
Put the VA hospital in the suburbs out by the apartment complexes and warehouses. It's Allentown's turn to get a large scale mixed use development that will generate property taxes. If the project is done right with parks, open spaces, a central common, good access points, extension of Hamilton Street as an interior connector road and hopefully a walkable traditional neighborhood design, it could attract hundreds of new homeowners and businesses to Allentown.
ReplyDeleteYou are full of crap Bernie. I have been hospitalized several times in recent years at LVH Muhlenberg. So has my wife. The place was clean, well staffed, and we were well cared for. You are a Socialist. We get it. That is why you support government run or funded hospitals and health clinics. The REAL pigsty is the VA Hospital in Wilkes-Barre! Ask any vet who has been treated in that hell hole. And you want that replicated here? Nuts!
ReplyDelete@6:19 - Good comrade! Mother Russia continues to be proud of your consistent effort in promoting our agenda and talking points! You will get an extra ration of Kool Aid this month for your good work and hatred towards America and its values.
ReplyDeleteGet rid of VA hospital’s and let our Vet’s get their care in our regular Hospitals! Case closed! The VA is a broken system with some deplorable care!
ReplyDeleteIt would seem that the hope of many leftist local politicians is to use the tract to build warehousing for welfare recipients -- i.e. public housing.
ReplyDelete1. The former State Hospital site is proposed to include a substantial health care component, but the types have not yet been specified. At a minimum, it will include a medical office building with a variety of services.
ReplyDelete2. The site is not proposed to be used for any subsidized housing.
3. The VA hospital system is in a real state of flux, with the Coatesville and Phila. hospitals proposed to be closed, last time I heard. Penn Medicine has bought a now-closed private hospital near Coatesville that apparently will be used primarily for VA services.