The VA is opening its first primary care clinic at the Orlando VA Medical Center campus.
While the new hospital is not yet ready to open, the Department of Veterans Affairs is moving the clinic— which serves about 1,200 clients — from a nearby annex to the Lake Nona hospital complex to begin serving veterans there.
The move Tuesday marks the first time that Central Florida veterans will receive primary care at the yet to be completed campus.
"We're trying to open up the clinic as timely as we can," Orlando VA spokesman Mike Strickler said. "At least the clinic is open for business. We're raising the flag to say we have a portion of the clinic open."
In addition to the clinic opening, the $665 million VA medical complex in Orlando's Lake Nona area — just west of the Brevard County line — is to include a 134-bed hospital, 118-bed nursing home and a veterans benefit service center.
Strickler said other departments likely will open while the final phase of the medical complex construction is completed and turned over from the builder to the VA, which is expected later this year.
"It's demonstration of progress," said Bill Vagianos, president of the Brevard Veterans Memorial Center. "It's a gesture of good faith, certainly."
Vagianos added that while it is good to see the opening of the clinic, the veterans' community has been frustrated by the delays in getting the medical center opened. The medical center will serve veterans from a 10-county area, including Brevard.
Groundbreaking for the medical center was in October 2008 and was supposed to open four years later.
"That hospital was supposed to open three years ago," Vagianos said. "I guess the veteran community has taken a cautious wait-and-see, given the track record the VA has demonstrated."
Strickler said that more and more services will be available at Lake Nona until the medical center's grand opening, expected in June or or July.
He said veterans will be pleased with the facility and the services that will be available to them. It marks the first time primary care services will be offered at the new Lake Nona campus.
"It's a quantum leap in how we serve veterans," he said.
by R. Norman Moody
