DATE: Friday, April 18, 1997                TAG: 9704180601

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY DEBRA GORDON, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   86 lines

PROGRAM CUTS AT PORTSMOUTH MEDICAL CENTER ON HOLD FOR NOW

The Navy's top admiral has ordered its highest-ranking doctor to hold off cutting doctor-training programs at Portsmouth Naval Medical Center until the proposal has been further discussed.

Adm. Jay L. Johnson, chief of naval operations, has asked the Navy's surgeon general, Vice Adm. Harold M. Koenig, to brief him next week about his proposal to slash more than half of the training programs at the Navy's busiest hospital.

Doctors in those programs are responsible for providing much of the patient care at Portsmouth Naval, which serves 425,000 active-duty military personnel, dependents and retirees in the region.

The Navy had planned to cut 87 Portsmouth residency positions - held by doctors who have completed medical school but are still in training - over the next five years.

The service announced the cuts last month, describing them as part of wider efforts to reduce its medical staff. Overall, it planned to erase 122 residency positions, including all of those in Portsmouth's obstetrics/gynecology, pediatrics, anesthesiology, pain management, psychiatry, urology and ear, nose and throat programs.

But until Johnson has been briefed and ``is comfortable that (Koenig) is doing the right thing,'' plans for the Portsmouth cuts are on hold, three naval officers familiar with the situation said.

Dismantling so many programs at Portsmouth and consolidating them at Bethesda National Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., concerns several top-ranking Navy officials, who worry the cuts will affect the quality of medical care for the Atlantic Fleet's sailors and families.

Hampton Roads congressmen and Marine Corps Gen. John J. ``Jack'' Sheehan, the commander-in-chief of the U.S. Atlantic Command, sent letters to Koenig last month expressing their worries. They asked that he take no further actions until they could be thoroughly briefed.

None has yet received any additional information.

Johnson's overall objective, the officers said, is to make sure the quality of care at Portsmouth doesn't suffer.

He will decide after the briefing if the current residency reduction plan should continue as it is, or be changed.

The surgeon general's office said only that Koenig ``will be briefing the CNO and the (vice) CNO later this month.''

The Navy's top admiral has ordered its highest-ranking doctor to hold off cutting doctor-training programs at Portsmouth Naval Medical Center until the proposal has been further discussed.

Adm. Jay L. Johnson, chief of naval operations, has asked the Navy's surgeon general, Vice Adm. Harold M. Koenig, to brief him next week about his proposal to slash more than half of the training programs at the Navy's busiest hospital.

Doctors in those programs are responsible for providing much of the patient care at Portsmouth Naval, which serves 425,000 active-duty military personnel, dependents and retirees in the region.

The Navy had planned to cut 87 Portsmouth residency positions - held by doctors who have completed medical school but are still in training - over the next five years.

The service announced the cuts last month, describing them as part of wider efforts to reduce its medical staff. Overall, it planned to erase 122 residency positions, including all of those in Portsmouth's obstetrics/gynecology, pediatrics, anesthesiology, pain management, psychiatry, urology and ear, nose and throat programs.

But until Johnson has been briefed and ``is comfortable that (Koenig) is doing the right thing,'' plans for the Portsmouth cuts are on hold, three naval officers familiar with the situation said.

Dismantling so many programs at Portsmouth and consolidating them at Bethesda National Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., concerns several top-ranking Navy officials, who worry the cuts will affect the quality of medical care for the Atlantic Fleet's sailors and families.

Hampton Roads congressmen and Marine Corps Gen. John J. ``Jack'' Sheehan, the commander-in-chief of the U.S. Atlantic Command, sent letters to Koenig last month expressing their worries. They asked that he take no further actions until they could be thoroughly briefed.

None has yet received any additional information.

Johnson's overall objective, the officers said, is to make sure the quality of care at Portsmouth doesn't suffer.

He will decide after the briefing if the current residency reduction plan should continue as it is, or be changed.

The surgeon general's office said only that Koenig ``will be briefing the CNO and the (vice) CNO later this month.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos

Adm. Jay L. Johnson, right, has asked Navy Surgeon General Vice Adm.

Harold M. Koenig to give him more information on cuts to

doctor-training programs.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu