Sen. Patty Murray and nearly 50 veterans celebrated the opening of the new VA Puget Sound Health Care System clinic in the Lewis County Mall on Friday.
“The situation for many of our veterans in the South Sound has dramatically improved,” Murray said to applause in a packed room in the mall. “This is yours, and you deserve it.”
Expected to serve 6,000 veterans in its first year of operation, the VA based the primary care clinic in the Twin Cities area to better serve veterans who live in rural areas and have been forced for years to drive to Tacoma or the Portland area for services.
Murray, who during her three terms has been a staunch proponent for veterans’ access to services, said she learned a couple of years ago from veterans in Kelso that many of them had difficulty traveling to the big cities for medical care.
“I remember walking out of that meeting and more convinced than ever that something had to be done to solve the problems of our veterans who were traveling for miles and miles just for basic services,” Murray said.
Local veterans now have an incentive to seek care and acquire a familiarity with their doctors, Murray said.
Wendy Carolan, chair of the Lewis County Veterans Advisory Board, said the clinic is at least five years in the making ever since the advisory board was formed to identify veterans’ basic needs.
“This is a positive step forward,” Carolan said.
Dan Henderson, a member of the Centralia City Council, was announced as Lewis County’s new veterans benefits specialist at the ceremony.
Carolan said Henderson’s role was needed because of the excessive time — about eight months — it took for a veteran to file a VA claim and then actually be seen in an appointment.
“There’s a pretty big crisis right now in the backlog,” Henderson said later of the claims that need to be processed, and his role in expediting the veterans relief fund. “That’s going to help solve that.”
Henderson, a former Marine, begins training next week for the 80-hour-per-month job. His hiring comes under the Lewis County Department of Public Health.
Admitting there were “speed bumps” in getting the clinic in place, DeAnn Lestenkof, a deputy director of the VA Puget Sound Health Care System, said it wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for Murray and support from the Twin Cities and surrounding communities.
“There really was support all around,” Lestenkof said.
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Adam Pearson: (360) 807-8208
