Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) at an EPA Press Conference on the Portland Waterfront Recently.  (Please visit Post Herein Dated August 2, 2022 for More Information on the EPA Distributions in District 1).

The Maine and New Hampshire Congressional delegations have written a letter to the Department of Defense requesting a briefing regarding its restructuring plans for the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard’s (PNSY) Naval Branch Health Clinic.

The proposed plan may force more than half of the clinic’s patients to seek care elsewhere, but according to DoD’s assessment of health care accessibility only half of TRICARE network providers within 30 of the PNSY clinic would be able to accept new patients and only 1% of these providers have appointments available for new patients within one week as well as one month according to a press release issued by Congresswoman Pingree’s (D-Maine) office today.

“The PNSY outpatient clnic is the foundation for convenient, quality health cae for thousands of active-duty servicemembers families, military retirees, and military retiree families,” wrote the lawmakers from Maine and New Hampshire in a two-page letter to the Honorable Kathleen Hicks, Deputy Secretary of Defense.  “Therefore, we urgently request a briefing from the Department within the next 30 days to discuss its implementation plans for the PNSY outpatient cinlic, the methodology and findings of its network assessment, its strategy to communicate to stakeholders and impacted patients in our communities, impact to the TRICARE network in the New England region, how this plan will impact the readiness of military forces and the impact in the readiness of military medical providers at PNSY.”