Long-awaited veterans medical clinic is finally taking shape in French Camp
A long-awaited medical clinic for veterans is finally taking shape near San Joaquin General Hospital, where the future facility that will improve access to vital care and services for San Joaquin County’s some 80,000 veterans and other veterans from throughout the region.
A dream more than 17 years in the making, the sprawling $144 million Veterans Affairs Stockton Community Based Outpatient Clinic in French Camp will provide mental health, primary care, physical and occupational therapy, radiology, laboratory, pharmacy, audiology and speech pathology services to veterans in San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Calaveras, Tuolumne and Amador counties. Completion is expected in spring 2023.
The clinic will also provide dental, eye, prosthetic, podiatry, orthopedic, cardiology and rheumatology services.
Among those at the forefront of the grassroots effort to bring the clinic to the Stockton area is Faustino “Tino” Adame Jr., a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and a Purple Heart recipient. Adame spent many hours attending meetings in Livermore and has been an advocate for veterans the past several decades.
“It’s been a journey on a long road,” Adame said at the project’s groundbreaking last November. “We’ve come to the crossroads where we still have to come across and continue advocating for the veterans. We have a younger generation. We need to make this facility ready for them.”