New VA clinic nears Sept. 2 opening

The long-awaited opening of a Lynchburg Veterans Affairs clinic is fast approaching.

Patient-care services at Lynchburg’s Community Based Outpatient Clinic will begin Sept. 2, and will make obtaining basic care easier for veterans who now travel to Salem or Richmond VA facilities.

The primary care clinic will be a medical home to an estimated 6,300 of Central Virginia’s 14,000 veterans. The clinic, which also will offer general mental health services, will be staffed and managed by the Salem VA, which also will be the site for specialty referrals.

The 9,700-square-foot building at 1600 Lakeside Drive, across from Lynchburg College, began taking shape with a November groundbreaking. As the building has neared completion, landscaping crews have begun the process of greening the area in recent weeks.

The clinic is open to enrolled veterans who live in Lynchburg or in Amherst, Appomattox, Bedford or Campbell counties.

At the November 2007 groundbreaking, Congressman Bob Goodlatte, R-6th District, said that Lynchburg was one of the largest cities in the U.S. not to have a Community Based Outpatient Clinic or a VA medical center in an adjoining city.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held 10:30 a.m., Sept. 29.

For more information on registering for the clinic, call (540) 982-2463 ext. 2143 or go online at http://www.va.gov, or http://www.salem.va.gov.