LUDLOW – The Springfield VA outpatient clinic is down to two doctors – from its usual count of four or more. And new doctors aren’t taking jobs there, fearing they’ll fall prey to Trump-led budget cuts in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
“Morale is low,” said Scott Hiorns, a Navy veteran from Ludlow who volunteers driving fellow veterans to VA medical appointments in the region. “Everyone is terrified about losing their job.”
John Paradis, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Air Force, described the cuts as promises to veterans that are being taken back.
In a Tuesday visit with U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, veterans shared observations about changes within the system that concern them. With return-to-work orders, VA staffers are meeting with veterans and discussing sensitive information in building lobbies because there is no office space.
Many vets voiced fears suicide rates will rise.
Veteran of the U.S. Navy, Scott Hiorns, attends a session to discuss with veterans the impact of policies and actions taken by President Donald J. Trump’s Administration Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (Douglas Hook / The Republican)Douglas Hook
Hiorns said even though he’s a volunteer, he fears the VA will eliminate the vehicles and fuel he uses to ferry veterans to appointments.
One of those people is a 95-year-old Korean War veteran living in Springfield’s South End who lost his dentist. Hiorns said he also drives the man, often in his car, on errands and helps him out around the house.
Vietnam veteran John Hurley of West Springfield told Neal that his customary annual physical has been replaced with a 10-minute Zoom call with a nurse in Boston.
“The 10-minute telehealth physical doesn’t make it,” Neal told reporters after the meeting.
The hour-long meeting drew about 30 vets to the Ludlow Veterans’ Service office, where more veterans have begun using a food pantry.
The 1st Congressional District that Neal represents in Washington is home to about 35,000 veterans. The district includes the soon-to-open Massachusetts Veterans Home at Holyoke and the state Veterans Cemetery in Agawam.
U.S. Army veteran Joe Young speaks at the meeting with U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal. (Douglas Hook / The Republican)Douglas Hook
The Department of Veterans Affairs is expected to cut 83,000 jobs nationwide, according to a memo obtained in March by the Associated Press. Neal’s office said the VA has already ended the jobs of 2,400 veterans, including Mike Slater of South Hadley, who Neal invited as his guest to Trump’s address to Congress.
The stated goal is to cut back to 2019 staffing levels of just under 400,000. That would require terminating tens of thousands of employees after the VA expanded during the Biden administration, as well as to cover veterans impacted by toxic burn pits under the 2022 PACT Act.
Neal was a backer of the PACT Act, defending it Tuesday as having changed the conversation by making it easier for veterans to claim needed benefits and placing more of the burden of proof on the government, especially for vets suffering the effects of the pits.
Neal said Hiorn’s dedication to the 95-year-old man was especially touching — and an example of how veterans are dedicated to looking after one another.
Neal said he was aware of the physician shortage. It’s a symptom, he said, of the on-again, off-again decision-making from the new administration.
Doctors, meantime, have options in the work world.
“If all of a sudden they are not sure if they are going to have a job in six months, they are unlikely to take the offer,” Neal said.
Veteran Joe Young of Orange told of veterans who were given appointments to see specialists hours away in Providence, Rhode Island.
Steven Connor, director of the Central Hampshire Veteran Service Office, said he too was aware of long travel requirements. He said he knew of veterans who live in the Berkshire foothills who were told to seek care in Providence.
Connor also spoke of transgendered veterans who are now homeless, terrified of coming forward for benefits for fear of outing themselves to a bureaucracy they have reason to believe is hostile to them and their gender identities.
Joaquim Pedrl, a former Marine, attends Tuesday’s discussion with U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal. (Douglas Hook / The Republican)Douglas Hook
“But they bled red,” said Ludlow resident and Vietnam veteran Steve Sawyer, in support of the trans veterans.
Neal said it’s easy to discuss cutbacks in terms of numbers: 83,000 jobs, for instance. It’s harder to think of individuals, he said.
“These are real people with real stories,” Neal said. “It’ll stay with me. And we intend to go back and push against some of these proposed cuts.”
Eric Segundo, director of veterans services for Ludlow, said more vets are looking for food from the local pantry, possibly out of fear their benefits will be cut.
Neal said it might get harder for some veterans to stay in their homes.
U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal meets with veterans from across Western Massachusetts in Ludlow on Tuesday. (Douglas Hook / The Republican)Douglas Hook
On April 3, the Trump administration announced that the VA Service Purchase, or VSAP program, will stop accepting enrollees.
The program stops foreclosures of VA-backed loans, giving vets who’ve fallen behind on their mortgage payments special forbearances as long as they can present a repayment plan.
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