VA hospitals overwhelmed,more than 300,000 with outstanding claims.

[Swede]

This is just not right. There is also a link to other stories in the Coming Home Section.

Some VA patients wait up to a year to see specialists. Artie Guerrero says he's on a waiting list.




http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6872403/

[Missy M]

1. This is a disgrace. ...

Why can't the veteran's have vouchers or insurance to go to non Veteran's Hospitals when this situation occurs. That they would have to wait up to a year to see a specialist is horrific. At the same time the man the VP shot in the face is getting top notch treatment and the White House doctors are also involved. Bush and his administration are a nightmare and the nightmare keeps getting worse.

[egadsbrain]

2. and health care is the ****

administrations "top priority" right now? Whose health care?!?

[lpbk2713]

3. Just to put this in context .....

Link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/02/14/MNG2JH80H61.DTL


Bush has squandered over $1.6 billion in the last two and a half years on propaganda just to improve his (hopeless) image.


Just think what could have been done if that money was used constructively.

[Moosepoop]

4. This hits home.

My father is 73, and depends on the VA for all his medical treatment.
Last fall, he started having trouble getting food down through his esophagus. He was already being treated for acid reflux, and the VA doctor kept saying it was this condition getting worse, and increasing the strength of his Prilosec. Dad finally said "Dammit, this is NOT acid reflux -- something is wrong!!" By now he had lost a significant amount of weight from not being able to get solid food down.
The doctor still didn't think there was anything wrong, but agreed to send him to a gastroenterologist to confirm one way or the other.

It took several weeks to get to see the specialist.

There, they put Dad under anesthesia, and attempted to insert a scope down into this stomach. The scope couldn't get through, due to the large, cancerous tumor blocking the esophagus. After stretching a pathway thru, they eventually got the scope into his stomach, and found the cancer there, too. He was handed over to the "cancer doctors".

It took nearly a month to get in to see them.

By then, my 178-pound father weighed around 140 pounds.
They ordered a CAT scan to see where the cancer had progressed to.

It took a couple weeks to get in for the test.

The cancer was now in his lymph system, kidneys, liver, and bones.

He was given, ultimately, 1 to 3 months to live.

He weighed 125 pounds two weeks ago, we've stopped weighing him. My guess would be somewhere between 100 and 115. He can barely get clear liquid down now, and when he can it comes back up.
He's got hospice caring for him at home, the hospital bed was installed yesterday. He's on major morphine, and even that doesn't control all the pain. The nurse said on Monday that he will be leaving us either this week, or possibly the next.

Dad has nothing but good things to say about the VA doctors, he's always highly praised the care he received from them. His animosity (and mine)is for the fact that the doctors are flooded with patients, and can only do so much for so many, with so little. It's the underfunding of the VA program that is the problem. The long wait to see a doctor or have a needed test performed is inexcusable, and only going to get worse.

[Swede]

5. What a nightmare M.

What the hell is wrong with this world?

[Moosepoop]

6. In a word? "Bush".

:evilfrown: