A proposal to move inpatient psychiatric services for veterans from Leavenworth to Topeka may come to a head during a meeting next week in Lawrence.

The move concerns some veterans advocacy groups as well as Veterans Administration union employees.

“Our problem is that Topeka has a need for more psychiatric beds, but Leavenworth has a need for the beds as well,” said Sandy Bond, president of National Federation of Federal Employees Local 1765. “That’s very unfair for our veterans who have those needs.”

But moving the 14 beds from Leavenworth’s Dwight D. Eisenhower Veterans Administration Medical Center to Topeka’s Colmery-O’Neil VA Medical Center would be a move of efficiency, said Jim Gleisberg, public affairs officer for Eastern Kansas Health Care System, the management firm that oversees the two medical centers.

“We can increase and provide better services in Topeka. That’s the bottom line,” Gleisberg said.

The VA is going to need as many psychiatric inpatient centers as it can get as more veterans return from the Iraq war with mental problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder, said Harvey Nicholson, a Lawrence area service representative for Kansas Vietnam Veterans of America.

“We don’t know what is going to happen,” Nicholson said. “If you think PTSD was bad in Vietnam, I think it is going to be our No. 1 biggest problem from the fallout of this war.”

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An advisory board formed a few years ago by Eastern Kansas Health Care will meet Wednesday afternoon at the Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vt., to discuss the psychiatric bed issue. It is possible a vote will be taken, Gleisberg said. A final decision will then be made by Eastern Kansas Health Care and Veterans Integrated Service Network Division 15. The meeting is not open to the public.

Serving on the advisory board are union representatives including Bond, representatives of veterans organizations such as the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars, and others. Also serving on the board are members of the staffs of Kansas’ congressional delegation.

The advisory board decided a few years ago to move the inpatient service to Topeka, but nothing was done, Gleisberg said. Because of a continuing budget crunch, the issue is being revisited, he said.

That decision was made after a VA cost and efficiency study conducted a few years ago recommended combining the two services at Topeka. Because of the publication of that recommendation, it has been difficult to recruit nurses at Leavenworth, Bond said. Gleisberg didn’t disagree.

Leavenworth at one time had 21 beds for inpatient psychiatric services. It has since been cut to 14 because of a lack of available nurses for hire in the Kansas City area, Gleisberg said. Bond noted another recent order that the beds be cut to 10 as of Jan. 1.

“In Leavenworth, 75 to 80 percent of the patients we treat have a psychiatric diagnosis, so for them to say we don’t need inpatient psychiatric beds in Leavenworth is ludicrous,” Bond said.

Topeka has a capacity for nearly 80 beds in its psychiatric center, Gleisberg said. About 40 of them are now being used, he said.

If a vote comes up next week it is unclear how the American Legion will vote, said Chuck Yunker, chief administrator for the legion’s state command office in Topeka. He said he had not discussed the matter with the legion’s representative lately. If it is approved, Yunker said he wouldn’t necessarily agree with it.

“You’d like to see more facilities, but they are moving beds, not eliminating them,” Yunker said.

It also wasn’t clear how Democratic Congressman Dennis Moore would want his representative to vote, said Rebecca Black, a spokeswoman in his Overland Park office. Moore’s staff expected Wednesday’s meeting to be an informative one with the issue to be discussed before a vote might be taken later, she said.

A call to Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Ryun’s office in Washington, D.C., was not returned. Ryun represents the western half of Lawrence and Douglas County, and Moore represents the eastern half.