MANCHESTER, N.H. – U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan, a member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, toured the Manchester VA Medical Center’s new urgent care center Tuesday and spoke with medical staff about how they are expanding critical health care services to veterans in New Hampshire. The new center opened earlier this month and provides direct access from the outside to its urgent care center, expanded mental health services for veterans, and separate facilities for women veterans to promote privacy and improve their patient experience.
“It was clear from today’s tour that this new urgent care center has hit the ground running and is providing vital health services to veterans in need,” Hassan said.
Kevin Forrest, Director of Manchester VA Medical Center led Hassan on the tour.
“It’s an opportunity to showcase the great work our employees do on behalf of Granite State veterans,” Forrest said.
Senator Hassan is working across the aisle on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee to help ensure that veterans, service members, and their families have the support that they need to thrive. Senator Hassan recently attended the White House signing ceremony for the Hire Veteran Health Heroes Act of 2021, which she introduced with Senator Mike Braun (R-IN). The bill directs the VA to create a program to recruit military medical personnel who have less than one year left in their service to work in federal health care occupations at the VA. The Senator is also working to improve veterans’ mental health, and recently the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee passed her bipartisan bill that would improve upon an existing VA program, the Solid Start program, to ensure that the VA is reaching out to newly-separated veterans.
Additionally, the bipartisan veterans package that was signed into law last year included the Deborah Sampson Act, which Senator Hassan joined in introducing and would eliminate barriers to care and services that many women veterans face to help ensure that the VA can address the needs of women veterans.
