The Carl Vinson V.A. Medical Center in Dublin is making some changes. It's getting rid of its Emergency Department and Intensive Care Unit.
The Director of the hospital, Maryalice Morro, says they will substitute an urgent care facility for those units. That means veterans will have to go to their nearest emergency room where they may have to pay out of pocket fees.
Morro says their Emergency Department is just not needed anymore because 95 percent of the veterans the hospital sees are categorized as urgent care or less.
"It really doesn't make sense to keep an Emergency Department fully staffed with nurses and with emergency nurses and physicians when really the majority of the work that we're doing is urgent care."
By the end of March, the I.C.U. will be closed. By November, the emergency department will be closed. That means veteran patients will have to go to their nearest emergency center.
"Our neighbors across the street at Fairview Park are well positioned to take care of those veterans. In fact, they've just had a complete renovation and expansion of their emergency department, so they will easily be able to take our true emergency veterans," says Morro.
Veteran, Norman Dexter, says he's been going to the Carl Vinson V.A. Medical Center since 2005.
"I've never had a problem where I had to use the Emergency Room or I.C.U., but I'm sure some of my fellow comrades have had to use it. It would be a shame if we had to go somewhere else to receive care in an emergency situation," says Dexter.
Rogerick Williams is also a veteran that goes to the Carl Vinson V.A. Medical Center for checkups. He says the closing is a real disappointment.
"We defended this country with our lives and a lot of people are disabled and don't have health insurance, and that would be a shame to have to go to Fairview or another hospital and pay for it because we are veterans and we paid with our lives."