VINITA, Okla. — A new Veterans Administration clinic is coming to Vinita, with the Cherokee Nation and the Eastern Oklahoma V.A. Health Care System applauded the agreement on Thursday.
This agreement will provide a V.A. clinic for area veterans — native and non-native — at the tribe's Vinita Health Center.
2 News Oklahoma's Douglas Braff spoke with Cherokee and V.A. officials and heard from area veterans.
Vinita used to have a veterans administration clinic. Marine Corps veteran Jerry Saunders told me, "I've been coming up here for probably 13, 14 years."
"Then they shut it down."
That was because of a leasing issue a couple of years ago, amid a major V.A. expansion in the region.
"I felt kind of abandoned by the V.A. or inconvenienced, so it would be more convenient for them," James Land, a veteran from Miami, said.
The closest remaining V.A. clinics are in Jay, Bartlesville, and a new one in Claremore. The latter is a 45-minute trip for Saunders.
"And I don't drive that good anymore," he mentioned. "And I can drive up here real easily. It's only 13 miles."
And Land says he gets health care needs met in Vinita already.
"I just lose about 2 hours of the day, as opposed to over half a day if I go to Claremore."
But Thursday saw Cherokee Nation leaders, V.A. officials, and area veterans celebrate a solution.
"The solution," Cherokee Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. told me, "is to co-locate veterans health services for all veterans, right here in about 1,300 square feet of our very large health center."
"This," he added, "is really a win-win."
While the V.A. has co-located its facilities in some parts of the country, it has never co-located in this part of the country and in a "tribally affiliated setting," as Hoskin Jr. put it. His father and former Vinita mayor, Chuck Hoskin Sr. played a major role in creating this partnership.
Eugene Schmidt, the assistant director of the Eastern Oklahoma V.A. Health Care System called the partnership "groundbreaking" and told me: "It's gonna be something that we can continue to duplicate and multiply throughout the state, and the rest of the country."
And the veterans who spoke with me seemed hopeful.
"It is the best health care I've ever had in my life, here in Vinita," said Land, who is a Cherokee Nation member. "So, I really believe that's going to continue on, especially with the Cherokee influence."
As for when the clinic will open, Hoskin Sr. said at the ceremony he expects it to open as early as late April.
The V.A. clinic will also have a waiting area, exam rooms, work areas, and parking. On top of that, it'll work alongside the Cherokee Nation Vinita Health Center to accomplish lab and x-ray services.
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