VA Proposes Closing Castle Point, Expanding Services At Montrose

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — Changes could be coming to medical care provided to veterans in the Hudson Valley if the recommendations announced Monday by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs come to fruition.

A major change would be the complete closure of the Castle Point campus in Wappingers Falls.

The VA's Asset and Infrastructure Review Report includes recommendations by VA Secretary Denis McDonough "to cement the department as the primary, world-class provider and coordinator of Veterans health care for generations to come," according to a news release.

The report will be published in the Federal Register and submitted to Congress and a presidentially appointed commission. The commission will make its own recommendations and submit them to the president in 2023.

McDonough said his department has spent the last several months talking to VA employees, union partners, state partners, veterans organizations and Congress.

"VA came to these recommendations by asking ourselves one question above all else," he said, "what's best for the Veterans we serve? Because that is our number one goal, today and every day."

Plans for Castle Point include relocating inpatient medical and urgent care services to community providers and then discontinuing services. Also the VA wants to relocate the community living center to current or future VA facilities, after which Castle Point would be shuttered.

The VA would also open a new outpatient facility in Fishkill. It would close Goshen's outpatient clinic after the patients are relocated to a new site in Middletown.

The Montrose VA Medical Center, which is a little less than 30 miles from Castle Point, would see an expansion of home-based primary care in the Hudson Valley. An adequate veterans community care program for inpatient medical and surgical subspecialties would be developed, and the use of telehealth technology between the Hudson Valley and the Bronx VA facility would be expanded. Additionally, the residential rehabilitation treatment program at Montrose would be reduced.

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-Cold Spring, and Rep. Antonio Delgado, D-Rhinebeck, called on the VA to protect local veterans' access to health care.

In a letter to McDonough, the congressmen said they were concerned about the recent proposal that, if implemented, would potentially result in Castle Point's closure.

As the VA continues its review of health facilities, "you must ensure that any veteran who utilizes the Castle Point Medical Center as a primary point of care maintains equally obtainable and high-quality care through a VA facility in the Hudson Valley," they wrote.

"Without assurances that a new VA facility in Fishkill or an adjacent community would fully replace the services offered at Castle Point," Maloney and Delgado wrote, "we have serious concerns that local veterans could face an interruption to their care."

The congressmen asked McDonough to tell them whether "the VA has plans to construct a new facility in the Hudson Valley and the surrounding area, whether such a facility would match or exceed the services provided at Castle Point, and whether this facility and its full complement of services will be included in the VA's recommendations."

Jack Duncan, commandant of the Putnam County Marine Corps League, said the closure of Castle Point was a bad idea and must be reconsidered.

"I am a veteran with a service-related disability and have received treatment here," he said during a news conference at Castle Point. "This facility is important. The key to all of this is travel."

Duncan said, if Castle Point is shut down, travel costs for veterans will go up, especially with the rising cost of oil.

"How is this in the best interest of the veterans?" he said.