WASHINGTON, May 13 (UPI) -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Friday announced plans to upgrade health care facilities for the U.S. armed forces.
The new programs were announced as part of a wide-ranging reform and consolidation of military bases across the United States. They included a plan to establish the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center at Bethesda, Md., as a 300-bed medical center with the full range of medical services, including specialized facilities for the most seriously war injured. The upgraded facility will serve as the U.S. military's worldwide tertiary referral center for casualty and beneficiary care, the Pentagon said.
Rumsfeld also wants to construct a new community hospital at Fort Belvoir, Va. with a 165-bed capability to serve military beneficiaries in the southern-most areas of the National Capital Region.
And he wants to convert the 89th Medical Group at Andrews Air Force Base to a clinic with surgery capability.
