Vacant Garland hospital donated to North Texas VA will help treat coronavirus patients
A vacant hospital in Garland will become part of the North Texas VA Health System and will initially be used to treat coronavirus patients.
U.S. Rep. Colin Allred (TX-32) announced an agreement has been reached for the donation by Baylor, Scott & White of the 100-bed facility. Officials hope to have it operational within weeks to help with the pandemic and it will eventually serve as an outpatient and specialty care clinic for approximately 184,000 veterans in North Texas.
“We must marshal all the resources we have to beat this virus, and in the near-term, this will help our community as we fight the spread of COVID-19 and provide care for those who need it,” Allred said in a news release. “In the long term, this is a huge victory for our veterans and the city of Garland. I am so proud of our North Texas community as everyone involved has rolled up their sleeves to get this much-needed agreement across the finish line. It will create thousands of jobs, help serve 184,000 veterans and save the VA hundreds of millions of dollars.”
The 470,000-square-foot facility closed in 2018. The Dallas VA estimates the medical center could eventually create about 5,000 jobs.
Cost estimates to build a new hospital would have ranged between $800 million and $1 billion, according to the release.
