Official hopes VA clinic can open in September

Several folks have been curious for more news about the VA clinic that is scheduled to open in Warren County this year.
While getting any type of federal information is usually troublesome, we caught a break on Thursday when Department of Veterans Affairs representative Emma Metcalf spoke at the annual CHEER meeting Thursday night.
It appears the VA clinic will open in an existing medical facility or medical office complex. A new structure will not be built. As to where the VA clinic will locate, that’s up to the bids, Metcalf says.
‘We are now working on a contract for bids, so I can’t tell you where it’s going to be here in McMinnville,’ she said. ‘But it will be a contract clinic, meaning we’re trying to get someone to bid on it at this point. The estimated opening, we’re hoping, will be by at least September of 2008. We’re working to get the bids out there now so that people can bid on it, locate a property, or find an existing property if we can.’
Metcalf said the local clinic will be exclusively for Warren County residents and will not serve surrounding counties.
‘Around 2,000 people is what we will serve,’ Metcalf said. ‘The whole goal of the VA is to get the services as close to the veterans as we possibly can.
‘Primary care services will be provided there by primary care doctors,’ Metcalf continued. ‘We’ll have mental health, social workers, psychiatrists and psychologists will be there in the clinic. We’ll have limited lab, limited diagnostic radiology will be provided there. Also very limited prescriptions. We really want to partner with programs already in the community.’