New Texas Veterans Clinic Aims To Ease Crowding

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) – A new Fort Worth medical facility for veterans will be the nation’s largest leased Veterans Affairs clinic.

Groundbreaking ceremonies were held today for the 240,000-square-foot clinic, to be built by 2010.

Congressman Chet Edwards of Waco was on hand for the ceremony.

The new clinic will be four times larger than the Fort Worth facility now serving 16 counties.

Congress has OK’d a $16.3 billion increase in veterans health care and benefits in the last two years.

The effort was led by the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Committee, which Edwards chairs.

The current Fort Worth clinic opened in 1992.

The new clinic will add specialty services, including cardiology, endoscopy, dermatology and prosthetics.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)