danivon wrote:JimHackerMP wrote:agreed.
And yes, Obama has screwed people, and veterans, over plenty. My family knows this all too well. But true, that he's not the only one. I just think you're being a bit one-sided about this (not you S., I mean Danivon).
So, for about the third time of asking, can you actually tell me what Obama did to veterans that is so bad? It just that it was bad and his fault?
Sure.
His treatment of Vets has been scandalous. More than 250,000 appointments were completed at the Carl T. Hayden Veterans Affair Medical Center in Phoenix between September and February, and over 14,000 of those appointments, or 5.7 percent, faced delays of 31 days or longer. The Associated Press gathered waiting times from VA centers all over the country to determine the agency’s progress in reducing wait times after it plowed billions of dollars into reforms across the system.
The VA’s timeliness goal calls for patients to be seen in 30 days or sooner. Nationally, 2.8 percent of appointments were subject to longer delays, meaning Arizona’s biggest VA hospital fared worse than the national average.
The Cottonwood VA Clinic had the worst wait times in the state. More than 10 percent of the appointments scheduled at that clinic have been delayed 31 days or longer, the records show. A spokeswoman said the VA is adding additional providers, including a physician, nurse and licensed practical nurse, to the Cottonwood Clinic to address long wait times. The VA is in the process of recruiting and expects to have the new staff in place in the Fall.
It’s not possible to compare the numbers to previous months because the VA changed the way it calculates the data.
The VA overhauled its Phoenix operation after reports of falsified waiting lists surfaced there last year, bringing national attention to the issue. Two administrators remain on paid leave, while former director Sharon Helman lost her job. Helman’s lawyer said her client had been “scapegoated to appease Congress,” and an administrative judge determined on an appeal that the VA didn’t have grounds to fire her over wait times or falsified records. However, he found her at fault for accepting gifts from a health care group.
In a fact sheet released last month to coincide with President Barack Obama’s visit to the Phoenix VA, officials said they had made great progress in Arizona, hiring hundreds of new employees and accelerating care for thousands of veterans who were identified as being on the secret wait list last year. The government has also created a new “Choice” program that allows vets to use outside physicians when they live too far or have had to wait too long for a VA center to see them.
“While more work remains, VA has expanded access to care for Veterans in Phoenix and across the country, both in VA facilities and in their communities since May 2014,” officials wrote.
But some critics say there haven’t been enough changes in Phoenix to create better care. Sam Foote, the now-retired doctor who revealed the problems in Phoenix, says things won’t really change until all employees associated with last year’s scandal are gone.
“They keep saying they’ve hired more people, but you always have to ask, ‘What is the net gain? What is the net change?’” he said.
He put a guy in charge to "fix" the problems. Very little has changed. We don't see the President getting personally involved. Why not?
Sec. McDonald is a joke. He went on Fox and gave out his cell number for Vets having trouble.
What happened? Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald has a policy of handing out his cell phone number if veterans need to get a hold of him. Here’s what happened when Fox and Friends decided to test that claim.
When hosts on the Fox News show called McDonald’s number live on the air Thursday, they found his voicemail box was completely full.
“The mailbox belonging to Bob McDonald is full at this time,” the message stated during co-host Steve Doocy’s call. “Please try again later.”
Are whistle-blowers heeded? No, they are, at best, ignored.
(CNN)The Department of Veterans Affairs has not listened to whistleblowers or protected them, and it also has not punished employees who tried to stop or interfere with whistleblowers, according to a letter the U.S. Office of Special Counsel sent to the White House and Congress on Thursday.
The new findings substantiate some allegations by whistleblowers highlighted in a CNN investigation in 2014 and numerous stories examining delays in care and preventable deaths of veterans.
The OSC letter backs up allegations by whistleblowers who raised alarms about dangers and harmful incidents happening to U.S. veterans in various VA facilities. And the letter says VA officials did not protect those who came forward and even tried to harm them.
In a statement to CNN in response to the OSC letter, the VA said it is "committed to creating a work environment in which all employees -- from front-line staff through lower-level supervisors to senior managers and top VA officials -- feel safe sharing what they know, whether good news or bad, for the benefit of Veterans, without fear of reprisal."
One of the whistleblowers whose case was examined and substantiated by the OSC was Dr. Katherine Mitchell, a VA doctor who made public numerous problems at the Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center in Phoenix.
Mitchell, who was featured in CNN's investigation, had raised alarms about dangerous delays in veterans' care, partly due to the lack of trained triage nurses in the Phoenix VA emergency room. But VA officials failed to act on Mitchell's disclosures for five years and also took no disciplinary action against responsible officials in Phoenix, the OSC found.
VA deaths covered up to make statistics look better, whistle-blower says
"The failure to take appropriate discipline, when presented with clear evidence of misconduct, can undermine accountability, impede progress, and discourage whistleblowers from coming forward," Special Counsel Carolyn Lerner said in the OSC letter.
According to the OSC, the VA confirmed that the Phoenix VAMC had no nurses in its Emergency Department comprehensively trained in medical triage, as Mitchell had pointed out. Yet Phoenix VAMC nursing supervisors required untrained nurses to triage patients, leading to at least 110 cases where patients experienced dangerous delays in care.
Mitchell settled her whistleblower case with the VA, but she is still speaking out about alarming situations that she says continue to exist inside the VA.
"There's no way I'd recommend anyone, any professional join the VA right now," she said in a recent interview. "Because (VA Secretary Robert) McDonald has not made any substantial progress in holding people that do whistleblower retaliation accountable."
VA whistleblower says investigation has been a 'whitewash'
The OSC substantiated dangerous situations in several other VA offices, including those disclosed by a worker at the Vet Center in Federal Way, Washington, and also situations in Maryland, in Montgomery, Alabama, and in Beckley, West Virginia. The OSC found that little to nothing was done by officials in most of these instances.
"The lack of accountability in these cases stands in stark contrast to disciplinary actions taken against VA whistleblowers," Lerner said in the letter.
Democrats fight against vouchers. Democrats fight against dismantling the unions that protect non-effective VA employees.
Obama has failed our veterans. Period.
26 Jan 2016, 3:28 am 
