HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — Veterans across North Alabama have been seeking VA healthcare options closer to home for years, and that prayer may soon be answered.
Primary care needs are currently treated in Huntsville, but when veterans need more advanced care, they must drive to a VA hospital in either Birmingham or Nashville.
“When you talk two hours down and two hours back, that’s half a day that you’re spending either on the road or in the office that you could be doing something else,” Veteran Bobby Lee said.
Birmingham VA Executive Director Dr. Oladipo Kukoyi exclusively told News 19’s Peyton Newman that a VA Specialty Care Clinic will open in the coming months. The location will be right across from Huntsville Hospital’s campus, in the UAB building on Governor’s Drive.
“It’s going to do specialty things like cardiology, neurology. We’re planning to do some cancer infusions there,” Dr. Kukoyi said.
Veterans currently address primary care needs at the Fox Army Health Center or the VA Outpatient Center in Huntsville. Dr. Kukoyi said those facilities have some capabilities for cardiology tests and other specialty appointments, which use several of the resources.
He noted Huntsville’s growth and the expanding needs of veterans, saying the specialty care clinic will better address unique needs and free up space at the two primary care clinics.
“Primary care needs are growing like wildfire,” Dr. Kukoyi said. “We’ve added so many primary care teams that people are on top of each other in the Huntsville clinic.”
Dr. Kukoyi said the Birmingham VA applied for a medical center to be placed in Huntsville, but was denied the federal funding. He said a medical center is a large facility, offering several services, but it is not as full-scale as a hospital.
In the meantime, the VA is focused on addressing veterans’ needs through clinics.
Beyond the specialty care clinic, Huntsville is looking to add three additional VA clinics in the next several years: a mental health clinic, a dental clinic and a women’s specialty clinic. Dr. Kukoyi said initial funding for all three has already been approved.
U.S. Congressman Dale Strong agrees with adding facilities to better treat veterans across the Tennessee Valley, but said he will not back down on advocating for a full-scale veteran hospital in the heart of Huntsville.
“You look at the large concentration of veterans in our community,” Rep. Strong said. “This is a fight we’re willing to fight.”
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