When my husband and I recently visited the Department of Veterans Affairs clinic in Bay Shore at 8 a.m. for an appointment for my husband, we found the parking lot full.

Inside, the receptionist told me the parking lot was full at such an early hour because a construction crew filled the remaining the spaces and those of doctors, too.

My husband, who is 87, had to look for and drive to a spot almost two blocks from the clinic. Another patient who came to the clinic about a week earlier almost fell after he couldn’t find a parking spot at the clinic.

This is absurd and unnerving. Why doesn’t the clinic shuttle the construction workers to park somewhere else?

Why must military veterans have to circle through Bay Shore streets several times before finding a parking spot and then walk — in the rain — and perhaps injure themselves?

The clinic and the Town of Islip need to step up to do something. This is so wrong in so many ways.

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