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Smyrna City Councilman holds rally for VA facility Read more: The Marietta Daily Journal - Smyrna City Councilman holds rally for VA facility
Smyrna City Councilman
Despite gloomy weather and light rain, about 100 people showed up for a rally Saturday in Smyrna to support using a closed down hospital as a medical facility for veterans.
Councilman Wade Lnenicka, who served as an Army Ranger, organized the rally in front of the shuttered Emory-Adventist Hospital on South Cobb Drive.
“We’re trying to draw public attention to the idea that this is a great location for the new VA medical clinic,” Lnenicka said. “Our purpose today was to put on the radar screen of the citizens, the veterans and elected officials — in Congress especially — the idea that this site is a great site, it’s available.”
Emory-Adventist Hospital, which was a partnership between Emory Healthcare and Adventist Health System, closed its doors in October because it did not attract enough customers to sustain its operations.
Lnenicka said it is the most logical choice for a VA medical clinic because it is already built and stocked with medical equipment.
“You have a building that was designed and functioned for 40 years as a hospital, and shut down a month and a half ago,” he said. “It’s got labs, it’s got operating rooms, it’s got X-rays, MRIs, rooms, patients’ beds — it’s a hospital. You wouldn’t have to do a whole lot of modification to make it into a medical clinic.”
Harold Watkins, commander of the Smyrna American Legion Post 360, attended the rally with some of his fellow post members. He said it only makes sense to use the closed hospital as a VA medical clinic because the existing medical facilities are overcrowded. He also said many veterans end up not going to the VA hospitals at all because they don’t or can’t deal with the long travel and wait times.
“You can’t even get in (some of them); there’s 80 people in the waiting room,” he said. “They’ve got a full room at 7 o’clock in the morning. And if you don’t have an appointment when you come in there, you’ve got a problem.”
He said if the VA moved into Emory-Adventist, it would help relieve much of strain on the existing facilities because the patients would be spread out over more medical centers. Watkins also said the Smyrna location would be easily accessible from about every direction.
“It’s an ideal situation for the VA to come here. They’ve got plenty of ways to get in here,” he said, referencing the Cobb County Transit bus stop right in front of the hospital on South Cobb Drive.
Lnenicka said the next step is to make people aware of the location and its availability and contacting elected representatives.
“I think the best thing (people) could do is contact Sen. (Johnny) Isakson and their congressman and say, ‘I support having a VA clinic come into Cobb County and be put on this site,’” Lnenicka said. “That would be the best thing any citizen or veteran could do right now, show support for this site.”
