Orlando Lake Nona VA Hospital Q and A

Orlando Lake Nona VA Hospital Q and A
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
February 11, 2014

Town Hall meeting for veterans in the Central Florida at the American Legion Post 286 in Orlando last night was filled with information veterans need to know.

If you read the Orlando Sentinel article from yesterday, "New VA Hospital unlikely to open by December" they got the projected opening date wrong. It is not "an additional 90 days" but more than 120 days after construction is done.
You can hear more about that in this video. Parking has been a huge issue as well and according to the VA it is ok to park on the grass since there are not enough spaces at the Lake Baldwin Clinic. Remember, as you'll hear in the video that it is just a clinic and was never intended to be a full hospital. Space for what is needed is the reason why we are getting the new Lake Nona VA Hospital.

The Orlando Sentinel also got the number of veterans a bit wrong. While there are 400,000 veterans in Central Florida, according the the VA they only have a little over 100,000 veteran patients. There are 2,800 employees and 1,100 volunteers. Counties served are brevard, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia.

Who is eligible for VA and the Affordable Care Act were also addressed.

Transportation has been an issue as well and projected to become a huge issue but the DAV and the VA have been working on it for a while. Part of the confusion regarding the vans the DAV supplies the VA with has come from funding. The federal government does not supply funds or the vans. The DAV does and funds come from members and donations. You'll hear that cleared up as well.