New Lakeland VA Clinic opens as Polk County's veteran population grows

LAKELAND, Fla. - For veterans living in Polk County, the only option to get to a VA hospital was to drive to Tampa or to Orlando, but now there's a closer option.

James A Haley Veterans' Hospital hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new Lakeland VA Clinic, located at 2080 Meadowland Park Boulevard in south Lakeland. 

It's a 121,000 square foot out-patient facility that offers patients access to primary care, mental healthcare, pharmacy, audiology and much more. It's all to accommodate a growing veteran population in Polk County and the state.

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The veteran population from St. Pete/Tampa to Orlando to Gainesville is growing between 3-9% each year.

"Oh. It's fantastic. I was on Pipkin, and they said ‘this was your last visit over here’ and I said, ‘Fine and dandy here I go,’" said George Bristol, a U.S. Navy Veteran. 

Bristol lives right down the street, so this new location is extremely convenient for him. He and other veterans in Polk County will no longer have to make the long and potentially dangerous drive on I-4 to get the medical and mental health care they need.

"My primary doctor is here. My podiatrist is here. I can do my diabetic video conference with my diabetic doctor who is in Tampa," said Bristol. 

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The clinic, the veterans' hospital's third largest, will have double the staff and will be able to serve around 20,000 patients annually, which is five times the number than their previous clinic on Pipkin Road.

"We're building up the ability to provide the services, because they're just not timely in the community around us and within our own system," said David Dunning, the executive director of James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital and Clinics.

There are plans to continue building more outpatient clinics, substance-use clinics and a new nursing home-assisted living facility in other parts of the state in the near future.

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