TOGUS — VA Maine Healthcare System has added 110 staff members over the last year, mostly at Togus, and plans to add space to its medical care facilities and replace its outdated long term care facilities for veterans, officials announced Tuesday.

Of those 110 new workers, 19 work in mental health services. They were hired partly to address what a federal watchdog’s report earlier this year called “nationwide systematic problems” also linked to Togus, resulting in some veterans not receiving mental health services or waiting long periods of time to receive those services.

Togus Director Ryan Lilly said Tuesday that 98 percent of veterans seeking assistance now get an appointment within 30 days, and they are working to increase that figure to 100 percent.

Lilly said that since the start of the year, the VA Maine Healthcare System has increased staffing from 1,350 to 1,460 people, most of whom work at Togus. He said the majority of those new hires were unrelated to the report issued by the Office of the Inspector General in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, released in June, which cited low staffing and scheduling issues at some veterans’ facilities across the country. The agency’s report linked Togus to problems similar to those at veterans’ hospitals nationwide that sparked a scandal last year.

Lilly said while 19 of the new hires are in mental health, most were added as part of an overall effort to improve veterans’ access to health care at Togus and eight smaller facilities across the state, not specifically in response to the Office of Inspector General report.

“We won’t rest until every single veteran has timely, high-quality care,” Lilly said Tuesday. “Our goal is to be a leader, both in the VA and across the state, in improving access so we don’t have a wait list to access patient care. It’s a commitment we’re making, to veterans, on the medical side and the benefits side. They’ve earned that.”

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The main hospital building at Togus will see an addition of 15,000 square feet of space to improve access to medical care, with design taking place this year, and construction next year.

And officials plan to build four new, 24-bed long term care units, to replace the 100-bed long term care building, built in 1937, at Togus with more modern facilities.

System officials also plan to add 65,000 square feet of space to increase its medical care clinic in Portland, in a partnership with Maine Medical Center.

And a new networking group, “Putting Maine Veterans First,” is in the process of forming, with a goal of better-sharing information about veterans’ benefits and how to access them, with veterans across the state, Lilly said.

 


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