VA Waiting Room Full -- of Frustration

[unhappycamper]

VA Waiting Room Full -- of Frustration
Military.com | The Oregonian | October 09, 2007

The first weekend in June, Steve Gay was working in his backyard auto shop when he felt pain in his lower abdomen.

The 57-year-old veteran and former nurse knew immediately he had a hernia. The following week, a nurse practitioner at the U.S. Veterans Affairs clinic in Northeast Portland confirmed Gay's self-diagnosis and told him he needed surgery.

Then he waited an agonizing two months for a consultation with a surgeon at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Portland and another month before getting the operation.

Gay's experience epitomizes the frustration military veterans in Portland often feel as they wait months for routine, but necessary, surgical procedures. A slow but steady increase in requests for such care has exacerbated the problem.

In an effort to reverse the trend, the VA Medical Center is in the midst of an $8 million expansion of its surgical ward that, when completed in January, will increase capacity by 50 percent.

The agency's policy states that patients, including those in need of a surgical consultation, should be seen within 30 days of their request. In Portland, hospital officials are well aware they aren't meeting the mandate even though it's a top priority, said Bernie Deazley, executive assistant to the hospital's chief of staff.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,152066,00.html

[pecwae]

1. It's unreal and gets worse.

Yet, in the midst of it all the Durham VA offers free valet parking. I'm using it and am very, very thankful, but wonder where the funding is coming from.

I spent a night there once (Durham VA) and couldn't get a blanket because they were 'out', the bed linens had holes the size of quarters all over, dried blood spotted the wall over the sharps container, gnats swarmed around the garbage can; but, there's free valet parking??

As a VA retiree I still can't fathom the process or priorities.