U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-Bayside, is calling on the federal government to build a hospital for veterans in Queens, rather than redevelop the property at an existing extended care facility in the borough.

The congressman is urging the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to create a new full-service hospital at the site of the St. Albans Primary and Extended Care Center.

“I am concerned that the current St. Albans plan would be inadequate for the burgeoning needs of returning Afghanistan and Iraq veterans,” the congressman wrote in a letter to Eric Shinseki, the U.S. secretary for Veterans Affairs.

Ackerman said he believed the VA’s “Enhanced Use Lease” plan, which would modernize the current hospital in St. Albans by leasing 25 acres of the site for private development, could be inadequate for local veterans.

“The [Enhanced Use Lease] process should be suspended until an appropriate study of veterans needs is conducted and a plan for a full-service Veterans Affairs medical center at St. Albans is developed,” Ackerman said.

A 2006 report from the Veterans Affairs department projected a decrease in veterans in the five boroughs. But Ackerman said the report was based on information that was more than seven years old.

He said it only briefly mentioned mental health services and did not have updated information on the health needs of veterans from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“I do not understand how any rational study could have led to the conclusion that demand for mental health services will significantly decline in the coming years,” the congressman said.

The St. Albans center provides medical services to veterans from Queens and Long Island.