VA: Current patients need have patience; clinic will serve 4,000

By Archive

Published: May 5, 2008

The first vets to get their primary health care at the new VA clinic in Marianna will be those not currently enrolled.

Those in the Jackson County area who have been traveling to VA clinics in Panama City, Tallahassee, or Dothan, Ala.,will still need to go there for a while.
According to Mary Kay Hollingsworth, the public affairs officer for the North Florida/ South Georgia Veterans Health System, new enrollees will first be seen at the Marianna clinic. It’s due to open mid-June.

“We think there are approximately 1,000 veterans that currently don’t receive service, ones that have never enrolled for care that may need to enroll for care,” Hollingsworth said.

“With regard to the folks who are currently enrolled, we’re asking them to continue to receive their care at wherever they’re getting it now, until we can get the new enrollees enrolled. Then we’ll have the others transfer in,” she said.

“So our time frame for them is kind of wait-and-see. We have to wait and see how many we have who are new first. And typically when we’re ready to see new enrollees, we have a big push,” she said.

“We will accept new transfers once we open and they’ll get worked in as quickly as we possibly can. We’ll need to ask for their patience,” she said.

“We do anticipate the projected number of users (new and existing) to be about 4,000. That’s pulling from the primary counties we expect folks to be coming from – Jackson, Gulf, Calhoun, Gadsden, Liberty, Washington and Holmes.”

Hollingsworth said that everyone is excited about the clinic and representatives will be on hand at the May 12 dedication to show veterans how to enroll.
“We’ll accept new applications first,” she said.

The clinic will provide the same kinds of service that a physician in private practice does. That includes physical examinations, immunizations, screening tests and health education.

According to the VA health services Web site, vets are eligible depending upon a number of variables. They include the nature of discharge, length of service, adjudicated disabilities (commonly referred to as service-connected disabilities), income level and available VA resources.

The local veterans service officer is John Turner, who may be reached at 718-0003.