Massa critical of plan to close V.A. unit
Staff reports
 

(October 25, 2006) — CANANDAIGUA — Eric Massa, the Democratic candidate for the 29th Congressional District, held a news conference Tuesday urging a reversal of the decision to close the unit for patients with the most serious mental problems at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Canandaigua.

Massa, who wrote Veterans Affairs Secretary James Nicholson asking him to rescind the decision, criticized the Republican he is trying to unseat, Rep. Randy Kuhl of Hammondsport, Steuben County, for not speaking out to save the unit.

"The question is, what did the representative of this congressional district know and when did he know it?" said Massa, who said that services at the center should be expanded during a time of war.

An internal V.A. memo indicates that the acute psychiatric unit would close at the end of November. Patients would be sent to V.A. facilities in Buffalo and Syracuse, with officials also looking into providing care at local hospitals.

Bob Van Wicklin, a spokesman for Kuhl, accused Massa of playing on people's fears. Van Wicklin said that Kuhl learned about the decision to close the unit last week and would not want it closed until a new 22-bed unit for veterans with less severe psychological problems is opened.