Local veterans will have to make the long drive to Togus a little while longer.

The Veteran Administration's new 29,000-square-foot, community-based outreach clinic in Lewiston won't be seeing large numbers of patients for about another two months, said Ryan Lilly, Togus' associate medical director.

"Help is on the way," Lilly said.

"Teamlets" of health care workers — consisting of a physician, a nurse, a clerk and a health technician — are getting ready for the move to Lewiston, he said. But preparations need to be made for the patients they are leaving and the ones they are taking on. Appointments need to be made and the infrastructure in Lewiston needs to be solid.

"There are certain things we can do before we own the building and there are certain things we can't," Lilly said. "The biggest thing is that we can't have VA information technology equipment in the building until it's ours."

"I don't think anybody's health care is suffering as a result of a delay in getting the clinic open," Lilly added.