It’s tempting to greet the news that a location has been picked for a new Veterans Affairs outpatient clinic for South Hampton Roads with a grumbled “It’s about time!” The new clinic has been sorely needed for years, with the need only growing more urgent as the process has dragged on longer than in should have.
But it’s better to put the past frustrations behind us and look to the now not-quite-so-distant future. We can be grateful that, with a site secured, work will begin soon. Now the many veterans in the area can look forward to the day when they can get the help they need without having to wait far too long for appointments and struggle with long drives, too much traffic and inadequate parking.
For the federal General Services Administration to choose the site is a big first step in moving from congressional approval to reality. Things still won’t happen overnight, of course. Construction of the 196,000-square foot clinic is supposed to begin next year, and the opening is set for fall of 2024. Let’s hope there are no unforeseen delays in that schedule.
Prohibitively long wait times for appointments at VA facilities have been a serious problem in recent years. The problem has been especially acute here in Hampton Roads, where the wait times were found to be three times the national average in 2015. Long wait times too often mean that veterans simply don’t get the help they need, when they need it. Sometimes, those delays can literally be a matter of life or death.
Virginia officials and the congressional delegation have been pushing the GSA to sign a lease for the new outpatient clinic in South Hampton Roads — one of 18 VA health facilities in 12 states that won bipartisan approval in 2016.
The new outpatient clinic on Battlefield Boulevard should make getting medical attention easier for thousands of veterans. It will provide primary care, an eye clinic, mental health, advanced imaging and specialty care, among other services. Plans are for more than 1,000 parking spaces.
The clinic will be built on 25 acres at the Chesapeake Regional Medical Center’s campus on Battlefield Boulevard. It will be near the Cypress Landing Veterans Housing, and should be conveniently located for many veterans in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina.
The clinic will be part of the greater VA system in the Hampton Roads area. The anchor facility for the system is the 432-bed Hampton VA Medical Center that offers an extensive range of services, both inpatient and outpatient. That center currently serves about 59,000 veterans.
With its extensive military facilities, Hampton Roads is an attractive home for many veterans. The region is seeing rapid growth in its population of veterans, and predictions are that the trend will increase, with the number of veterans in Hampton Roads growing much faster than across the rest of Virginia.
The number of people enrolled in VA health benefits in Hampton Roads is expected to increase by 44% over the next 20 years. The demand for VA outpatient services here is predicted to increase even more rapidly — by more than 70% over the next two decades. The new outpatient clinic in Chesapeake is already sorely needed.
No one should need reminding that veterans and their families have made many sacrifices to protect our country and our freedoms. They deserve our support and care. In these days of the all-volunteer military and of conflicts that can be hard to define and understand, though, it’s too easy for many Americans to lose sight of that reality.
Here in Hampton Roads, veterans are our neighbors. We should join them in welcoming the news that the decision about where to build the new VA outpatient clinic has been made. That should mean that, at long last, they should soon be able to get the help they deserve, when they need it.
