VA Closes Part-Time Clinic In Kokomo After 11 Months

A part-time medical clinic for veterans has closed, less than a year after opening in Kokomo.

A spokesman at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs says staff had to be transferred to a VA clinic in Marion. Tom Blackburn also tells the Kokomo Tribune that access was improved at other clinics.

The Kokomo clinic was open two days a week. Howard County Commissioner Paul Wyman, who helped bring the clinic to town, says VA bureaucrats have failed to properly serve veterans. He says local officials weren't informed of the closing before it happened.

Some veterans say the clinic didn't provide enough services and discouraged them from making appointments. U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly last year had asked the VA to investigate.

The clinic had a nurse practitioner and a physician's assistant.