Like a steamroller fueled by federal tax dollars and marauding across the North Shore, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has concocted a plan to close the veterans clinic on Boston Street in Lynn as part of a scheme to centralize and economize its regional services.
After the plan was announced on Monday, VA spokeswoman Kat Bailey said the closing plan is a recommendation, adding, “Nothing is changing now for veteran access to care.”
That is certainly not the way some of the 2,000 veterans treated at the clinic and local public officials feel about the announcement. Lynn Mayor Jared Nicholson and city Director of Veteran Services Michael Sweeney have demanded additional details on the VA plan.
Bailey did not say when a final VA decision on closing the Lynn clinic might come, but the VA’s tentative plans call for opening a large clinic in Salem serving that city as well as Lynn and Gloucester veterans.
Sweeney is quick to point out that a “multi-clinic” forces Lynn veterans who enjoy the convenience of local health services to fight traffic or arrange public transportation to get to an out-of-town clinic.
Nationally, the VA is drawing up plans to redefine its services as the U.S. veteran population declines. That said, Lynn has the largest number of minority veterans in Massachusetts, according to the 2020 Census.
“It’s majority-minority city,” said retired Brig. Gen. Andrea Gayle-Bennett. “If you’re talking about equitable accessibility, moving to a predominantly-white neighborhood is not the way to do it.”
The late Daniel Wistran, a Swampscott resident and doctor, and former U.S. Rep. John Tierney, worked to make the Boston Street clinic a reality after talking to veterans who said a local clinic was crucial to ensuring veterans acted proactively to preserve their health.
Sweeney, an Army veteran whose deployments included Afghanistan, fought alongside local veterans and elected officials 15 years ago to halt a VA proposal to make Lynn veterans travel to Gloucester for health care.
He is fighting again on behalf of fellow veterans and we join him in insisting the VA hold public hearings on its clinic proposal and provide details of the plan requested by Nicholson and others demanding Lynn residents continue to have access to local veterans services.
