Posted on 01/31/2014 6:28:18 AM PST by Innovative
U.S. veterans are dying because of delays in diagnosis and treatment at VA hospitals.
At least 19 veterans have died because of delays in simple medical screenings like colonoscopies or endoscopies, at various VA hospitals or clinics, CNN has learned.
The new document obtained by CNN shows a worse problem than has previously been made public by the VA.
As CNN has previously reported, as many as 7,000 veterans were on a backlog list -- waiting too long for colonscopies or endoscopies -- at VA facilities in Columbia, South Carolina and Augusta, Georgia.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Waiting .................
I can emphasize with you there
I had a fast, really fast growing tumor around a 35yr old shell fragment in my leg. Went from ping pong ball size to tennis ball in 4 months. VA waiting list was 1 year for surgery. Had to go to private physician/surgeon and had it out in about 3 weeks.
Then years later was put on a 6 month waiting list for prostate biopsy, thank god it was benign as 6 months for a malignant tumor could push it to metasticise.
The actual care and Dr’s are great, but yo have to be able to get in to them first.
from what I can figure, you have to be poor, or you have to have a service related injury, or you had to be in during wartime and in the war zone....My husband keeps getting denied service and that's all I can come up with ....he was covered by my insurance and even though he was active in the 1970's he never was in Nam...
his brother on the other hand, was in the Navy during that time....he had one flight where he landed at an airport in Nam, never got out of the plane, yet was granted Va access because he had "been" in Viet Nam.......go figure.....
I work on contract to the VA. The hospital I am affiliated with has a few delays but overall the care is adequate and sometimes very good.
I was told by the Chief of Ambulatory Care that there are 3 office staff for every health care provider at that hospital. And THAT my FRiends, is where all the money goes.
I can go to the VA and get treated under my disability or use my health insurance and VA will pay any Copay. The requirements are murky as you say.
and funding for the VA health care facilities has had a great increase since 2009 - but still the delays
in addition
a report directly from the VA recently announced they were changing the rules on what RNs and nurse practitioners could do, adding to their jobs some things, some times, that doctors often do and some of those things will be allowed to be done in some cases without a doctor’s supervision - due to a big shortage of doctors at many VA facilities
the nursing profession is applauding the change, and the doctors are warning of what they feel will be significant problems
What was it that Kathleen Sebillius said? Some will live, some will die? It’s all going according to plan apparently.
Soon coming to an Obamacare facility near you.
It’s what “they” wanted anyway. Cut the pay, delay the care and ruin the best and bravest. Alinsky would be proud, that evil, country-killer.
I’ve never had any problems in the Palo Alto region either. Perhaps I’m just lucky but severity of VA issues appear to be very dependent on what part of the overall system you’re dealing with.
To bad no one in government or elected officials are held accountable.
What they should do, is immediately force all of Congress and the Senate in VA facilities for care/treatment for the next 5 years or until the problems are addressed.
It’s just as bad if not worse in the UK. The Daily Mail is full of horror stories. Some of them would make you cry.
I totally agree with this statement. I'm in northern Cali and go to the hospitals at Mather in Sacramento and Reno. I see out patient GP's at the clinic in Redding. I can not say enough good things about any of these VA facilities. They are on par with the private care I get in other area facilities.
This is a good place to give those hard working people a big thumbs up and a loud thank you. We all tell them when they get it wrong but we need to tell them when they get it right.
Obama equates G.I bill with welfare
for the most part, front line staff, medical and support staff work vey hard.
the problem in such a big and also governmental agency is that “accountability/lack of accountability” from the top is difficult to move down to the specific hospital or satellite clinics. the private sector has its own problems...its changing very quickly.
there is also the terrific pressure from the top down to measure performance as 100% and that thrwarts management saying “we need more staf, more resources” when this country doesn’t HAVE more staff (difficult to get doctors, especially specialists because of the doctor shortages that keep going up)and because we are trillions in debt and waste so much money on Progressive Boondoggle projects. any staff that wants to “tell the truth” will be gone very fast cause our citizens don’t want to hear the truth—the reality.
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