After years of delays, an expansion of the region’s veterans’ health care clinic might finally be gaining traction.

Many hoped the national scandal last year about excessively long wait times in the Department of Veterans Affairs would help improve the way northern Michigan veterans get health care. Among the anticipated changes was an expansion of Traverse City’s Community Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC), which provides health care services for thousands of veterans from Antrim, Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, Lake, Leelanau and Manistee counties.

The clinic offers primary care services, mental health services, individual and group counseling, lab services, physical therapy and more. In fiscal year 2014 it served 4,867 veterans; through July of this year, the clinic has already seen 5,023 veterans.

“A $7.5 million expansion (for the clinic) was included in the 2012 VA budget,” says Chuck Lerchen, director of veterans services for Grand Traverse, Benzie and Leelanau counties. “But they still haven’t moved on it.”

That new and improved clinic will be more than two years away, according to VA officials in Saginaw who say it’s been a year since the Secretary of Veterans Affairs approved a lease for 22,500 square feet of space to expand the TC clinic.

“The lease will be procured by VA’s Office of Construction and Facilities Management, Real Properties Services in Washington, D.C.,” says Peggy Kearns, Saginaw’s medical center director. “The procurement is in process with public advertisement to lease space anticipated in September 2015. VA anticipates design, construction and activation phase of 26 months until the CBOC will be fully activated and seeing patients.”

Rep. Dan Benishek, a former VA physician, has been a supporter of the TC clinic expansion.

“The VA is currently seeking a suitable location for the expansion so that construction and staffing of the new facility can be completed,” says Philip Christofanelli, a spokesman for Rep. Benishek. “As a former VA doctor and a member of the House Committee on Veterans, Dr. Benishek is committed to ensuring that all veterans, including those in rural areas, have access to quality and timely care. He has called for regular updates from the VA and will continue to monitor the progress of this facility and he will work to ensure that the VA delivers on their commitment to Northern Michigan veterans.”

With 39 full-time staff clinicians, Traverse City’s clinic serves one of the largest outpatient veteran populations in the state and is very well used, according to Lerchen. Earlier this month, he made a presentation to the Grand Traverse County Board of Commissioners to voice his frustration with the delays.

“We can deploy an entire division – tanks and everything an army needs – in 24 to 48 hours, but we can’t build a clinic in four years, “ he told commissioners. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s unacceptable.”