
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 29, 1992                   TAG: 9203300197
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: F-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

VAMC NEEDS MORE STAFF AND FUNDS

I HAVE BEEN to the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salem several times as an outpatient and once spent five weeks in the hospital. I am always surprised twice when I go there, first by what seems an overwhelming workload. The number of patients seen and treated on any given day is almost incomprehensible.

The second surprise is how, despite all that work, the doctors and nurses can be so cheerful, caring and competent.

The hospital doesn't need a new director. It needs more nurses, more doctors and more funding. The outpatient clinic is a bottleneck.

One thing that will never be in short supply is rabble-rousers. They appear suddenly and with loud voices: Witness the snail darter, the spotted owl and the burning of waste. They exercise their right of free speech but too often, without weighing all the facts, they become more emotional than objective. JOHN Q. ADAMS DALEVILLE

by CNB