LEWISTON — Local veterans can receive health care in Lewiston-Auburn even before a new Veterans Affairs clinic opens here next year.

On Friday, leaders of the Togus VA Hospital plan to tour space on Minot Avenue in Auburn — now occupied by the Army Reserve’s  399th Combat Medical Hospital — to create a temporary facility for limited care.

The reason: Local veterans deserve local care this year, said U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud, D-Maine.

“My concern is that veterans would have to wait until December of 2011,” said Michaud, who leads the U.S. House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Health. “They need it sooner, rather than later.”

Last week, the 2nd Congressional District Democrat met with VA Secretary Eric Shinseki. The pair talked about several issues, including the clinic, Michaud said.

The permanent clinic, known in VA parlance as a “CBOC” (community-based outpatient clinic), is meant to augment the Togus VA hospital, located outside Augusta.

The Lewiston facility has been a long time coming. For a while, the VA had aimed to open a clinic in northern Cumberland County rather than Lewiston-Auburn. Meanwhile, clinics have opened in Bangor, Calais, Caribou, Fort Kent, Houlton, Lincoln, Rumford and Saco.

“It’s not as though the VA has been sitting on its hands,” Michaud said.

The project was finally approved in the current federal budget. The new clinic will be built at 15 Challenger Drive. The VA will lease space from a builder on the site, now a wooded lot off Alfred Plourde Parkway.

When it is completed sometime in 2011, the new 30,000-square-foot clinic will offer a variety of outpatient services to veterans dealing with issues ranging from chronic illnesses such as hypertension and diabetes to mental health problems.

Over time, it ought to save some money for the VA,  Michaud predicted, since the VA reimburses veterans for their mileage to and from its hospitals.

More importantly, by having a nearby clinic, some veterans who never reach Togus could get help here, he said.

The same is hoped for the temporary location on Minot Avenue, said Ryan Lilly, Togus’ associate director.  The site, part of an Army Reserve complex, has been offered to the VA at no cost. 

It should be operational sometime this year, Lilly said.

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