This REALLY, REALLY Pisses me off!
"The Spokane VA Medical Center is dedicated to providing quality health care services to veterans. In carrying out this mission, the VAMC focuses on providing primary and secondary care, with emphasis on preventive health and chronic disease management."
snipped from link below....there is a page linked here for the Spokane VAMC's unique website, but THAT site is presently down!
http://www1.va.gov/directory/guide/facility.asp?ID=126
Precisely. Though I disagree entirely, this is how they view their job. Give checkups and pills as needed, but if a patient looks like he's about to die, then let him die. It's cheaper that way. They could have hooked him up to all kinds of doodads and thingamajigs, but that would be expensive. And besides, he was old. (/sarcasm).
Our vets should receive the highest standards of care, period. What happened here is nonsense, resulting from bureaucratic and political folly. The VA hospitals should be top notch and run around the clock. Veterans risked their lives for the decisions made by our government. Many died in the course of acting on those decisions. Those who lived through it deserve nothing less than the utmost respect of our citizenry, our politicians and our bureaucracies.