Courtney Meets Connecticut VA Director Al Montoya For Tour Of Progress On Expanded New London Veterans Health Clinic, And To Thank VA Nurses During National Nurses Week

Press Release

Today, Rep. Joe Courtney (CT-02) met with Connecticut Veterans Administration (VA) Director Alfred Montoya and Deputy VA Director John Callahan for a tour of construction progress at the newly leased New London VA Community Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC). Rep. Courtney worked for years to help secure the lease award for the new veterans outpatient clinic, and in May 2020 announced that the CBOC had officially been granted a lease award that will see it grow to over 15,500 square feet--nearly three times the size of the old site--and that will keep it located in New London. Courtney has kept in close touch with Director Montoya following the lease award, and has visited the site for updates to help keep local veterans informed of progress.

The expanded clinic will accommodate new specialty forms of health care, like cardiology and phlebotomy, space for group counseling, and more capacity for mental health and telehealth services. It will also feature in-house lab work that will provide faster, more convenient diagnosis for veterans--as opposed to the cumbersome offsite testing that the smaller site required. During today's site visit, the group was also joined by Deane Bruce (Senior Staff Engineer, CT VA), and Ken Fingers (Projects Lead).

"The COVID-19 pandemic has presented new challenges in every sector imaginable, but in the face of adversity the nurses and staff at our VA clinics worked even harder to keep delivering the best care possible to our veterans," said Congressman Courtney. "They've kept Connecticut far ahead of the pack when it comes to vaccinating our veterans and their families, and I was glad to have a small chance to thank them today during National Nurses Week for stepping up to lead our veterans and our communities through the past fifteen months of unprecedented challenges."

"Eastern Connecticut is home to more veterans than any other part of the state, and for years our nurses and VA staff have been working to deliver care in a facility that we outgrew a long time ago," Courtney continued. "The new CBOC is going to deliver an upgraded standard of care for our vets--less waiting time, more staff, more services, and more capacity. The supply chain challenges brought on by the pandemic have made headlines around the world, but Director Montoya and his team have worked hard to keep progress on the new CBOC moving ahead even despite the many hurdles. My team and I will keep working with them to stay on top of this important project--our veterans need the expanded facility to come online as soon as possible, and so do our VA nurses and health care staff."

Following the tour of construction on the new facility, Courtney and Director Montoya stopped by the existing New London VA CBOC to meet with nurses, and to thank them for their heroic service during National Nurses Week 2021. The CT VA has helped keep Connecticut ahead of nearly every other state in the nation in terms of number of veterans vaccinated, and today Rep. Courtney had a chance to thank them for the hard work and determination they have shown for the past fifteen months.

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