FORSYTH COUNTY, NC -- Less than a year after the new U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs health care center opened in Kernersville, at least one military family says veterans aren't getting the services they were promised.
The Kernersville VA Health Care Center opened in February 2016.
It's built on 40-acres across the street from the Novant Kernersville Medical center.
An estimated 35,000 veterans or more are served there for their outpatient primary care and specialty health needs.
Rachel Wellborn says her son was recently told a health issue his son has can't yet be treated at the facility.
“We want to know why!” Rachel Wellborn said with frustration in her voice.
Wellborn’s son is an Army veteran who served for a few years before being released on disability, she says.
He’s been getting various health issues treated at the VA but his mother reached out to 2 Wants 2 Know when the family wasn’t getting answers about why only some of his treatments can be handled in Forsyth County.
“They told them they were closing the VA clinic in Winston-Salem and they could get all their stuff done, their procedures done in Kernersville,” Wellborn said. “You should go out and look at that nice VA clinic.”
We did.
Yes, it is a nice, sprawling facility.
In fact, four times bigger than the outpatient clinic in Winston-Salem it replaced.
The VA promised the Kernersville center would offer a "variety of outpatient services" and use "state-of-the-art medical equipment and treatments."
“But when you go in, they just don't have the equipment to do what they need,” Wellborn said. “Which in essence, they lied to them. So, now he's waiting on a procedure that he needs.”
Wellborn says her son was told he might have to wait six months.
“It bothers me because he's a disabled veteran, he's suffered all these years from chronic conditions from his injury in the military and now he's having to wait for procedures and the one he needs, it could be life-saving,” Wellborn added.
Triad veterans like Wellborn's son, who can't get their treatments locally, are having to drive nearly 100 miles round trip to the Salisbury VA Health Care Center.
“They told him no funding,” Wellborn explained.
When 2 Wants 2 Know asked if that was true, the VA gave a more complex answer and did not mention any funding issues.
Our request for an interview, on camera, by phone or via Skype, were declined after we refused to give a list of questions ahead of time.
A VA spokesperson did send the statement below:
The schedule of specialty service offerings at the Kernersville Health Care Center (HCC) is, and has been, a multi-phase approach with the existing operation moving first, and then most critically needed new specialties next.
We emphasized this early on during the building and activation of the HCC, as this HCC was built with a mindset toward the future.
The first phase of opening the Kernersville HCC included the planning, design and construction of a new HCC that would meet the current demand and anticipated growth over the next 20 years.
The second phase included moving the existing services from the Winston Salem Community Based Outpatient Clinic to the Kernersville HCC, which included approximately 20 primary care teams, mental health, radiology, laboratory, pharmacy, optometry, podiatry, neurology and audiology.
The third phase is adding new specialty services in a safe manner for our patients, and with all required approvals and/or accreditation processes in place. Opening specialty services that are new to a facility require extensive behind-the-scenes planning and development including hiring very specialized clinicians, purchasing capital equipment, training staff on equipment, writing policies and procedures for the staff to follow to ensure safe patient care, and acquiring the necessary approval or accreditation, meaning the permission to provide those services.
We have already started many new specialties at Kernersville since opening such as physical therapy and rehabilitation, full range of imaging not previously available, Dental services, oncology, and cardiology. We anticipate activating the new cardiac CATH and electro-physiology lab within the next 90 days upon receipt of approval. Endoscopy and colonoscopy are also slated to begin in early 2017.
In the meantime, all of these services are still provided in Salisbury or through our VA Care in the Community program.
The VA says it could take another two years before everything is up and running.
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