<p>Walter Reed Hospital is finally expanding its amputee rehab center - delayed due to the base closing exercise. Bottom line: They don’t have it NOW when they need it - this is what drives people crazy about military medicine. Salient points from AP story: </p>
<p>Construction is expected to begin this spring (06) on a state-of-the-art rehabilitation facility for amputee soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center even though the venerable military hospital is scheduled to close in five years. </p>
<p>The $10 million Military Amputee Training Center - originally expected to open last month - was caught in limbo during the Pentagon’s base closing process. Ground was broken in 2004, but construction had not yet begun last May when the Army ordered a hold on all projects that could be affected by the Base Closure and Realignment Commission. </p>
<p>“We were too quick with the ceremonial groundbreaking,” Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Chris Augsburger said. “We hadn’t even awarded a contract.” </p>
<p>A waiver was granted in September to continue work on the project. A contractor should be selected for design and construction by the end of March, with construction to be completed in September 2007, Augsburger said. </p>
<p>Walter Reed officials still expect the 30,000-square-foot addition to the military hospital to include a running track, a climbing and rappelling wall and a virtual-reality center, as well as a military vehicle simulator to help some soldiers return to the battlefield. It will combine both new and existing counseling, occupational and physical therapy services for amputees. </p>
<p>But the amputee center is now considered temporary, to serve soldiers for only five to seven years due to the BRAC decision, according to the Army Corps of Engineers. </p>
<p>“Only the Defense Department could really have done this,” said Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., who argued for months that the long-needed amputee center was a good reason to keep Walter Reed open. “This kind of cosmic change would stop any other agency from moving forward.” </p>
<p>Walter Reed is supposed to move to an expanded suburban military hospital in 2011, under the BRAC recommendations President Bush signed last year. </p>
<p>“The transitional center is necessary to provide the best possible care for our amputee patients in the five years between now and 2011, when Walter Reed is scheduled to move to Bethesda (Md.) and merge some functions with the National Naval Medical Center,” Walter Reed officials said in a statement. </p>
<p>The federal government has expressed interest in taking over the Walter Reed campus. But the expected $2 billion price tag for a new hospital facility in Bethesda will probably delay the closure of Walter Reed for many years, Norton said. </p>
<p>“Congress is not going to appropriate money when it already has a working hospital,” she said, adding that the expanded amputee center is needed now. “We are simply talking about the need to accommodate many more seriously wounded Iraq and Afghanistan soldiers than anybody contemplated.” </p>
<p>To date, Walter Reed has treated about 315 amputees from both combat zones, according to the hospital. Its services are available to nearly 3 million active-duty service members, family members and retirees. </p>
<p>The budget for the hospital expansion was not affected by the BRAC decision, but because the project has been delayed, the government will probably pay to rush construction, Norton said. </p>
<p>“We’re dealing with people who this country feels strongest about,” Norton said. “You will not find a single voice in the Congress saying that’s a waste of money.”</p>