VA Problems Being Dealt With Locally Wrong Answer

Reminder: Problems in the Department of Veterans Affairs is not a new issue. It has lasted generations. Congress never fixed it right but didn't have to answer for what they got wrong. Look up the fact there were two wars but less doctors and nurses than they had after the Gulf War. Gulf War veterans were not taken care of properly during the Clinton Administration and no one took care of the Vietnam veterans properly. All the reports were in the news but no congress had ever held themselves accountable for any of it. Why? It isn't about Democrats or Republicans because frankly, both parties seem more interested in getting the other side to be blamed instead of putting veterans first!

Duckworth: ‘I’m not surprised’ by allegations against VA
Washington Post
BY ED O'KEEFE
May 19, 2014

Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) — an Iraq war veteran, double amputee and former assistant secretary at the Department of Veterans Affairs — said Monday that allegations facing the VA mirror chronic problems she witnessed at the sprawling department where she served from 2009 to 2011.

Duckworth, a former Army helicopter pilot, lost both of her legs when an insurgent shot her helicopter out of the skies over Baghdad in 2004. She later ran the Illinois Veterans’ Department, joined the VA as an assistant secretary in May 2009 and left in 2011 to launch a congressional campaign.

In a wide-ranging 40 minute interview Monday, Duckworth recalled the frustrating experience of navigating "silos" that existed between the VA’s two main components: The Veterans Health Administration, which runs the clinics and hospitals and the Veterans Benefits Administration, which deals with claims and doles out payments. (A third component, the National Cemetery Administration, oversees hundreds of military cemeteries nationwide.) "I’m not surprised because it’s such a large network that you’re going to find problems," Duckworth said.

"There is I think a lack of a sense of accountability almost to central office," or to top officials in Washington, including Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki, she said. Duckworth recalled how in several instances, officials in Washington learned of improperly sterilized equipment or delayed treatment for veterans at hospitals across the country only after reading local news reports. Officials in those hospitals "never told central office," she said. "That was frustrating to me, because they were trying to deal with it locally and it would be three, four or five months later. As soon as central office and Secretary Shinseki found out about it, we’d act on it immediately."
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