Island Health Care in Edgartown has added more space in the form of a refurbished 34-foot RV, a gift from Duffy Health Center in Hyannis. It will stay parked alongside the clinic near the Triangle.
A U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs program intended to create better access to health care for veterans in remote locations, including on Martha’s Vineyard, has instead left them angry and frustrated.
In Secretary Coleman Nee’s visit to Island veterans, he gave an update of the recent activities of his office and asked how he could better serve their needs.
More than 30 years ago Dr. Donald Berwick began seeing patients in the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital emergency room. At the time, the ER was staffed by visiting physicians on weekends, so he helped set up the schedule and find the doctors a place to stay for the night. Since then, he has stopped seeing patients, was temporarily appointed by President Obama as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in Washington, D.C., and in June, declared his campaign for governor of Massachusetts.
For a year and a half, meetings about Island veterans health care drew crowds expressing their outrage at the long wait for on-Island health care. But on Wednesday, about seven months after a contract was finally in place, the tone was quite different: instead of concerns, there was mostly silence, and instead of outrage there was appreciation.
A bill that would drastically change post-retirement health insurance benefits for municipal employees is making its way through the state house and has caused a small stir among Island town employees.
