Commission Votes to Close Walter Reed Army Medical Center

[Snowden]

washingtonpost.com
Commission Votes to Close Walter Reed Army Medical Center
The Pentagon's Proposal Would Expand Bethesda's National Naval Medical Center


By Eric Weiss and Daniela Deane
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, August 25, 2005; 10:21 AM


A federal panel voted unanimously Thursday to close the District's Walter Reed Medical Center, the flagship of military medicine and hospital to several U.S. presidents, as part of the Pentagon's plan to restructure hundreds of military bases and facilities across the country.

The federal Base Closure and Realignment Commission voted to move most of Walter Reed's services to the Bethesda military hospital or to a new hospital in Fort Belvoir.

For almost a century, wounded combatants have arrived at Walter Reed after returning from war. Recently, it has housed more than a thousand troops coming from the front lines in Iraq.

As part of its plan to eliminate about 180 military installations nationwide with the goal of saving nearly $49 billion over 20 years, the Pentagon recommended closing Walter Reed because it is old and underused.

Before the vote, Commission Chairman Anthony Principi described Walter Reed as an aging facility that needs to be modernized. He said soldiers coming back from Iraq "deserve to come back to 21st century medical care." He said that building a new state-of-the-art hospital was a "no-brainer."

The Pentagon had proposed closing Walter Reed and expanding the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda into a new facility called the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. The District would lose 5,630 jobs in the move.

The Pentagon would also build a 165-bed community hospital at Fort Belvoir to handle some of Walter Reed's functions.

Although the commission supported plans to update current military medical facilities, they questioned whether the $170 million the Pentagon had earmarked for a new state-of-the-art hospital at Bethesda would be sufficient.

Still to be decided by the commission is whether Arlington and Alexandria will lose almost 23,000 defense workers housed in leased office space.

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[Woodmonkey]

We had a thread about this before. It turns out that Walter Reed is very old and that there is another facility close by that is newer and can handle the patients from WR. Some of those military buildings have been around forever and maintenance costs are very high.

[conlor]

I felt sad when I first read about this, but if they're keeping the Walter Reed name, it'll be the same. But in a better facility. Those old buildings are hard to keep clean and the newer equipment doesn't fit into them in an efficient way without major renovations.

[Snowden]

I'd forgotten the earlier thread, yet I think I may have picked it up too. It would be very strange not to have a "Walter Reed Hospital" - but the buildings don't matter; the care being given inside, the proper equipment, etc. are what is important.

[conlor]

In 100 years, the new one will be THE Walter Reed hospital.

[Betty Boop]

Health care costs and technology advances. Still, Walter Reed should have been continually upgraded to standup proudly with the best because for so long we have entrusted the nation's best, including our Presidents, and most severely injured soldiers to it's care for recovery and rehabilitation. Medics and M.D.'s will do well in the beautiful state of the art facility PROPOSED for Bethseda - but to lose such a piece of honor and caring still is a sad thing - sad because Walter Reed is the definable face/recognized name of military health care hope and excellence for recovery for so many generations and sadder still that we allowed it not to stay current and technologically state of the art.

Let's see Army Headquarters now housed out of Air Force Bases and Army Hospitals in the Navy's domain - sounds like we plan to intermingle our forces into one giant branch.

[The_Federalist]

It is the people who make up the Walter Reed staff that make it one of the best hospitals in the country. Not the building they work in.