fbpx

Dallas Congressman Seeks to Improve Medical Center for Veterans

Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans' Hospital April2013_1
Veterans Medical Center in Dallas. | Image from VA.GOV

Dallas Congressman Colin Allred and Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough paid a visit to the Garland VA Medical Center on Friday.

Although the medical facility in Garland is striving to improve, more needs to be done to provide services to veterans, according to Allred.

According to NBC DFW, Allred is the one who helped to get the Garland VA Medical Center up and running one year ago. The center was donated to the VA in 2020 by Baylor, Scott & White, which ultimately saved four-hundred million dollars for taxpayers.

In North Texas, around two hundred thousand veterans in the area are signed up to receive health care from a VA. In the VA facilities in North Texas, there are “more than 1.5 million outpatient visits alone,” according to Fox 4.

The President of Veterans Center of North Texas, Paul Hendricks, mentioned how the center in Garland has helped prevent delays in receiving care for them during the pandemic while the Dallas VA Medical Center was overbooked.

Unfortunately, the Garland facility is not as advanced as the Dallas VA Medical Center.

“They don’t have all of the services here [in Garland] that they have in Dallas, so sometimes you have to go to Dallas anyway,” said U.S. Army veteran Austin Sumner.

Because so many veterans need assistance, Hendricks asserts it would be beneficial to open up other VA Medical Centers in Collin and Denton counties. He also believes that the Garland VA Medical Center needs to put an extra focus on the mental health needs of their veteran patients.

The facility in Garland currently does not have an Emergency Room up and running, a feature Allred stressed as a necessity.

During his December 17 tour with McDonough, Allred stated, “The hope is to expand, offering services like inpatient care for veterans and partnering with Dallas County for emergency room services for non-veterans.”

Support our non-profit journalism

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Continue reading on the app
Expand article