Southwest Mississippi veterans looking for primary and preventive health care will soon be able to go to clinics in Natchez and Meadville.

The cities will be the sites of two clinics for veterans in Southwest Mississippi.

But patients needing specialized care, hospital stays and complex diagnostic tests will still have to travel to the VA Hospital in Jackson.

U.S. Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., announced Wednesday that a contract has been awarded to CR Associates, a health care services company based in Alexandria, Va., which will provide billing and administrative support services.

The contract does not call for any construction.

Two clinics will provide sanctioned primary and preventive care to veterans: Tillman Medical Group in Natchez and Family Medical Group in Meadville. The clinics will also serve veterans in Concordia Parish.

&uot;This is certainly great news for almost 9,000 veterans who live throughout Southwest Mississippi,&uot; Lott said.

&uot;Almost 1,600 veterans in the affected counties currently use VA&160;health care based in Jackson. The placement of these two clinics will obviously save them many trips and offer the Southwest Mississippi veterans population health care in a more local and comfortable setting.&uot;

Yvonne Robbins, veterans services officer for the City of Natchez, said the clinic won’t be &uot;a hospital away from the hospital,&uot; but it will save veterans some travel time to Jackson.

&uot;It’s not going to be the end to end all ends,&uot; she said. &uot;But it will be a big help.&uot;

Clinic enrollees will receive access to routine X-ray and laboratory services and emergency prescriptions and will be the beneficiary of computerized patient record systems which will be linked to Jackson VA&160;Medical Center records.

Care which requires hospital stays, complex diagnostic tests and other specialty needs will be referred to the VA&160;in Jackson.