I requested to see a dermatologist and hadn’t heard anything in two weeks. So I emailed my PCP and told her that if I wasn’t going to see a dermatologist within the next two weeks I wanted to go outside the system. The next day I got an email confirming an appointment 30 days to the day of my initial request.
When I got to the appointment there were not very many patients at the clinic and I went right in to see the doctor. That tells me it’s not the doctor-to-patient ratio that holds things up. It’s the paper work being done by the lowered paid affirmative action people who set up the appointments.
Which goes to the point of the need to fix the systemic issues. That’s the focus of his plan.
Hire more vets that actually care about other vets, fire incompetent managers, modernize the booking and management systems.
Also note that every hospital faces different staffing and patient population management concerns. Some have plenty of room, and some are at risk. San Francisco faces different challenges than Orlando, and Dallas is analagous to neither, etc.
For the hospitals and clinics with impacted populations, allow the use of out of system doctors without time comsuming and ridiculous hurdles. The system itself should flex to meet the needs of the vets, not force the vets to meet the needs of the VA.
Or, if someone just wants to ‘keep their doctor’ ... if that doctor accepts medicare, that doctor can be accessed readily.
This plan is almost commom sense at its core. I dont understand the resistance.