| Robert F. Sawallesh
19 April 2006 http://www.pentagonmaverick.com/ The Pentagon, US Congress and the White House are experts at closing down America's Army, Navy and Air Force hospitals. Some of these military hospitals have even been turned over to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Not too long ago it was announced that a new hospital would be built at MacDill AFB. Ooops, it was then announced that the old hospital would be replaced by a clinic, not just a clinic, but a Super US Air Force Clinic. In Pentagonese, a Super USAF Clinic is a clinic you build when the Pentagon is too cheap to build a new military hospital. Pictured is the "hospital" at MacDill AFB or has it now been downgraded to a USAF Clinic. If you go to the former emergency room entrance at this "former hospital" you will now see a sign that reads in bold black lettering on a red background, "THIS IS NO LONGER AN ER!!" Wow, two exclamation points!! See upper left corner of photograph. And what about the big white "H" on blue background road signs that direct you to hospitals? Well, these signs recently disappeared at MacDill AFB, one sign was right in front of US Central Command which is directing the Global War on Terror. See sample of hospital sign at upper right corner of photograph. Active duty, military retirees and their families and military widows are being channeled via Tricare (Pentagon's HMO program) and Medicare into overcrowded civilian emergency rooms, medical clinics and hospitals in the Greater Tampa Bay area. Public Affairs Officers and NCOs at MacDill AFB and in the Pentagon might consider this article as an unfavorable article and hence how should they react? They might react, for example, by going to Tampa General Hospital and asking the hospital director, since the hospital has military community patients, if the name of the hospital could be changed to "Tampa General and Military Hospital" which of course in Pentagonese would add more military hospitals to the Pentagon's listing of "their" military hospitals. Remember the days when every military base had a hospital and all you needed to be treated was your military ID card. Today you need a wallet full of health insurance cards. Bottom line: In 2000 I received a letter from MacDill AFB which states the following: "A new hospital (estimating at $33M) is a part of our long-term MacDill 2010 Plan, but there is no appropriation at his [this] time. We estimate the earliest time frame for actually planning and programming for a new hospital project will be FY09." So who killed the above new planned hospital at MacDill AFB through either inaction or deliberate action? And hence was born USAF Super Clinics? Perhaps the Pentagon's Top Docs just said "Super Size" the name of the clinics. Would that pacify and fool the military communities so they will stop complaining about lack of Army, Navy and Air Force hospitals?" New look: Will MacDill AFB just paint over the blue and white hospital road signs so they read "SC" for "Super Clinic?" How is your military base doing? |
 |
| Silent Death of a Military Hospital |