Official NC VVA pins

Available through the state secretary

For immediate release: 

            DURHAM, NC -   Department of Veterans Affairs announced today that a VA Outreach Clinic along with a pilot transportation initiative has been approved to serve Veterans in Brunswick County.   According to VA officials, an Outreach Clinic will provide local veterans with primary care up to three days a week.  The clinic will be associated with, and operated out of, an existing medical provider in the local area.  VA expects to begin contracting efforts within 30 days with the goal of being able to see patients within four months.

            “Enhancing access to care is one of our key goals,” said Mr. Daniel F. Hoffmann, Director of VA’s Mid-Atlantic Health Care Network.  “This Outreach Clinic will reduce both the distance and time required for Veterans to receive primary care.”

            According to Hoffmann, there are more than 3,800 Veterans living in Brunswick County enrolled with VA for medical care.  While the majority of patients require only primary care, Veterans living in Brunswick will continue to have the option to travel to VA’s Wilmington, N.C., Community Based Outpatient Clinic or to the Fayetteville VA Medical Center where they can receive a wider range of specialty care.

             Along with the new outreach clinic comes a pilot transportation program designed to shuttle Veterans to the Wilmington Clinic as well as to the Fayetteville VA medical center.  Timing and routes are still being worked and will be announced as soon as contracts are in place.  

            The Brunswick County VA Outreach Clinic will not impact the progress on the new Wilmington VA clinic which will be eight times larger than the current clinic and is being built on a site at the Wilmington Airport and expected to open in 2012.  The new Wilmington clinic will provide enhanced access to many services including primary care, specialty care, ancillary diagnostics, cardiology, laboratory, mental health, social work, and optometry.