New London veterans' clinic, the state's busiest, needs more room when its lease is up in 2016
Norwich — The lease for the New London Clinic, the busiest of six Department of Veterans Affairs community-based outpatient clinics in the state, is up for renewal in the next year, making VA officials consider what it should look like in the future.
Officials have begun to "reimagine" what the clinic would need, Gerald Culliton, director of the VA Connecticut Healthcare System, told a group of local veterans Monday in Norwich.
The leases for all of the VA clinics in the state are expiring in the next three to four years, Culliton said, but New London's, at 4 Shaw's Cove, is one of the first.
As the leases come due, "we'll look for bigger, better space," Culliton said.
Culliton spent much of his visit discussing the Veterans Choice Program intended to allow those already enrolled in the VA health care system to get health care from non-VA doctors. To be eligible, a veteran would have to wait more than 30 days for VA medical care, live more than 40 miles away from a VA medical care facility or face an "unusual" or "excess" travel burden.
"I would tell you at this moment that the Choice Program is shaky nationally," Culliton said. "I don't know what all the reasons are, but I don't think that the private sector providers that the VA picked understood the volumes. We're the largest health care system in the United States and maybe in the world. They have to be ready for that."
VA officials are "working through the bugs" in the program, he said.
Officially named the John J. McGuirk Outpatient Clinic, the New London clinic serves between 5,000 and 6,000 veterans, Culliton said. He met with veterans at the Norwich district office of U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District.
"So we've already got a team of people that are starting to think about, reimagining what that clinic could be and how much space we need," Culliton said.
The clinic provides general internal medicine care such as physical exams and general X-rays and some mental health services.
The VA has "staffed up" the clinic in New London, Culliton said, adding, "We probably have a little more staffing to do."
Last year, many veterans complained about issues with the phone system, specifically with voicemail messages, at the clinic. The VA replaced the entire telephone system across all six clinics "at a pretty significant cost," Culliton said.
A bid process will determine the new leases for the clinics.
Infrastructure, particularly at the West Haven VA, is the biggest single issue for Connecticut's VA health care system, according to Culliton.
While a new psychiatric emergency room is expected to be up and running next year and the women's health clinic was just finished, Culliton really sees a need to fund projects that upgrade electrical, plumbing, heating and air conditioning systems at the community- based clinics and at West Haven and Newington.
The state's VA health care system is "among the leaders in quality and patient safety in whole country," Culliton told the group.
The VA health care system across the country went through several major routine reviews this year, Culliton said, and "in every one we knocked it out of the park."
j.bergman@theday.com
Twitter: @JuliaSBergman
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