RICHMOND — A bill that would require a physician to be on duty at all times at Central Virginia Training Center won approval in the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday.
Sponsored by Sen. Steve Newman, R-Lynchburg, the bill meets a concern expressed by parents of residents at the training center, along with some staff members, who were worried that state spending cuts could eliminate a full-time doctor.
Newman’s bill was amended so that it applies only to CVTC and not to the state’s other four training centers. CVTC is the only training center with a skilled-nursing facility, and the only one with 24/7 coverage by a licensed physician.
The original version of Newman’s bill would have required full-time physician coverage at all training centers and cost the state an estimated $1.36 million per year.
That cost factor caused the bill to be routed through the Finance Committee.
The amendment eliminated the bill’s fiscal impact, because physician coverage already is required at CVTC under regulations of the state Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, according to the Finance Committee’s staff.
CVTC’s hospital facility has been removed in recent budget cuts, Newman said, and parents had a “deep concern with a possible situation of no physician on duty,” he said.
“This would put in the state code, hopefully for hereafter, that a doctor should be there at all times,” Newman said.
The bill, SB 538, has cleared two committees and is headed to the Senate floor.
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