Posted on 04/23/2014 6:21:05 PM PDT by kristinn
At least 40 U.S. veterans died waiting for appointments at the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care system, many of whom were placed on a secret waiting list.
The secret list was part of an elaborate scheme designed by Veterans Affairs managers in Phoenix who were trying to hide that 1,400 to 1,600 sick veterans were forced to wait months to see a doctor, according to a recently retired top VA doctor and several high-level sources.
For six months, CNN has been reporting on extended delays in health care appointments suffered by veterans across the country and who died while waiting for appointments and care. But the new revelations about the Phoenix VA are perhaps the most disturbing and striking to come to light thus far.
Internal e-mails obtained by CNN show that top management at the VA hospital in Arizona knew about the practice and even defended it.
Dr. Sam Foote just retired after spending 24 years with the VA system in Phoenix. The veteran doctor told CNN in an exclusive interview that the Phoenix VA works off two lists for patient appointments:
There's an "official" list that's shared with officials in Washington and shows the VA has been providing timely appointments, which Foote calls a sham list. And then there's the real list that's hidden from outsiders, where wait times can last more than a year.
"The scheme was deliberately put in place to avoid the VA's own internal rules," said Foote in Phoenix. "They developed the secret waiting list," said Foote, a respected local physician.
The VA requires its hospitals to provide care to patients in a timely manner, typically within 14 to 30 days, Foote said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
A look at the future of ObamaCare.
This is tantamount to planned murder — a perfect
image of what is coming with ObamaCARE/RomneyCARE,
DEATH BY ADMINISTRATOR without accountability.
these waits are the normal for most vets....my two bil's have VA benefits only and I hope for them they never get really sick...
one bil had to wait 7 mos just to get his GB taken out...a day surgery...
the other bil is still waiting for a hernia operation...
I might add that many people as civilians have to wait on dr appts too especially if its a specialty like neuro or cardiac...
Prediction:
CNN will go completely silent when the same thing happens under ObamaCare.
Fear not.
When the millenials get uneasy over grandpa’s untimely demise at the hands of the Death Panels, the regime will offer some valuable Groupons for college loan remission.
Best friend from college’s dad was a thoracic surgeon for the VA. I was over at their house A LOT during my college years as they were like family. He spoke frequently of the subastandard conditions....particularly in the mental ward. This was in the 80’s.
Were the Veterans affairs managers part of the anti-war movement during the Vietnam days. If so, they may well have conspired to murder. Sound far-fetched?? There were similar problems in hospitals and other places.
I will die on the damned curb in front of a VA hospital before I will go inside and be subjected to the inhuman, degrading, sub-par, incompetent, bumbling idiots that are supposed to be the "professionals" in the hospital.
I will never, ever, under any circumstances allow myself to be treated by anyone associated in any way with a VA hospital.
To hell with them.
I am a retired US Army Sergeant Major and I approve this message, I stand by it and to hell with anyone that takes issue with the way I have stated it.
Believe me...I have been there, I have done that.
I will not again.
My dad, a Korean War vet, died in hospice in a VA Hospital. We couldn’t bury him for several days as they had mis-tagged him with someone else’s name. And since it was Friday of the Labor Day weekend, well, we just had to wait until Tuesday to get that all straightened out. That told me everything I needed to know about government provided health care.
14 to 30 days?
It took a YEAR for me to get an appointment,
AN APPOINTMENT for a sleep study.
Now on other things, they have done better and I have
to say it’s a LOT better than it was 20 years ago.
Some stink. Some are tolerable (or so some of my vet buddies have told me). Looks like you got one/some that stank. My extreme sympathies.
Perhaps, possibly probably.
But so what?
CNN investigated the problem.
CNN stayed with it, even after stonewalling by VA.
And CNN REPORTED ON IT.
Kudos to CNN.
Could it just possibly be the corrupt wealthy ruling class and government insiders refuse to support, underfund and take care of our veterans?
I have a friend who came back from Vietnam almost deaf. He first tried to go to the VA in 1972 and has been denied regularly since. They said they had no record of him being in combat.
He finally got some help a couple months ago and he’s spent every Thursday and Friday since on appointments. He has his hearing aids, they think he lost all the cartilage in his nose from Agent Orange, they are supposedly testing for than now. He spent all day Monday with a psychiatrist to see if he has PTSD 40 some years after he came home!
The Dark Side Of Obamacare.
Film at 11.
I wish I could say this is something new with a straight face; but, I cannot.
In the early 1980’s Hollywood produced a mainstream movie about how the VA system doesn’t work. It traced the machinations that some doctors went through to get a vet who had a heart attack on the VA hospital’s front steps proper and timely medical treatment.
It became a fight between the administrators wanting to look good and the doctors who wanted to serve the vets.
The movie ends with one of the doctors becoming an administrator and adopting the very procedures and attitudes he had fought so hard against as a doctor.
I asked several of my friends, Vietnam era vets and earlier how accurate the movie was. Their answers we profane and very down hearting.
No words for this one
“He spent all day Monday with a psychiatrist to see if he has PTSD 40 some years after he came home!”
Imagine the ripple effects of all of those head injuries from IEDs from our two “secular crusades” in Iraq & Afghanistan...
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