By Dewey Turner and Hugh Lessig, ADVANCE WRITERS
Staffing shortages and service complaints at the Fredericksburg Veterans Affairs Health Care Center—the subject of a series of recent articles and commentaries in The FXBG Advance—are now the subject of a CNN investigation that aired Thursday, Oct. 1, and is now posted on the news organization’s website under the headline “VA built dozens of new veteran health centers but can’t find enough doctors and staff.”
“When the Department of Veterans Affairs opened a new, state-of-the-art clinic with ribbon-cutting fanfare last year in his hometown of Fredericksburg, Virginia, Michael Dunlap was thrilled to have care so close,” the article begins.
“Dunlap, 63, has been treated in recent years for a ruptured disk in his back, skin cancer, shoulder and neck issues, and respiratory problems. But at the Fredericksburg VA Health Care Center about an hour south of Washington, DC, he’s already gone through four primary care doctors in about a year-and-a-half.
“’You get a form letter that just says, you know, “Appreciate serving you. I won’t be there anymore,”’ said Dunlap, who spent 23 years in the Marines as a master gunnery sergeant. ‘You build up a rapport with a doctor, and now you lose a little bit of confidence because now you’ve got to explain everything all over again.’”
The CNN report goes on to say that the 470,000-square-foot Fredericksburg facility “is still struggling to adequately staff up more than 18 months after opening, according to veterans; health care providers; and members of Congress who represent the area, which has one of the highest concentrations of veterans in the United States.”
The report describes the facility as having empty parking lots and hallways, and says veterans like Dunlap are having difficulty getting appointments even in urgent care situations.
An Air Force veteran recently spoke to the FXBG Advance about the challenges in finding primary care at the local VA.
The veteran, who wanted to be identified only as Tim, said he tried to sign up for primary care at the Fredericksburg center after attending a recent veterans roundtable with Rep. Eugene Vindman and Sen. Tim Kaine.
He said a VA staff member told him by phone that it would be three to six months before he could see someone.
“She was very nice, very respectful, but said, ‘Our primary care doctors are overbooked so we can’t give you an appointment, but we can farm you out to community care,’” Tim said.
The VA hasn’t responded to Advance questions about Tim’s experience and what he says he was told about three-to-six-month wait times for appointments.
Other findings in the CNN story, some of which were previously reported in The Advance:
· The VA built or updated about 40 health care facilities around the country, including the one in Fredericksburg, after legislation enacted under President Joe Biden expanded benefits, leading to a surge of veterans enrolling for care.
· The VA’s inspector general found that 97 percent of VA facilities are reporting severe shortages of candidates for doctor occupations, and 86 percent have severe shortages of candidates for nursing positions
· The Fredericksburg clinic has a staffing vacancy rate of nearly 40 percent—more than 350 unfilled positions.
Vindman, quoted extensively about veterans’ health care in The Advance reporting, told CNN that his office, with 72,000 veterans in Vindman’s congressional district, is constantly getting calls from frustrated veterans about the lack of services and staffing at the VA.
“It is the fact that they can’t keep staff, that they can’t hire staff, that it’s taking too long. That’s making wait times too long,” Vindman told CNN. “That’s making it impossible for veterans to actually get in the door. And that’s what needs to get fixed.”
VA Press Secretary Quinn Slaven told CNN the same things he’s said to The Advance and other area news outlets—nearly word for word: that the local VA clinic is still in the middle of a “rolling opening’ and that it has “met its hiring goals,” though he once again didn’t say what those hiring goals are.
Another familiar Slaven quote: “In less than two years since opening, the clinic has already completed more than 245,000 appointments and is ahead of schedule for enrolling new patients.”
The CNN report, meanwhile, describes what it calls “Fredericksburg burnout” due to the short staffing and high demand for services—and which local providers say has led to a revolving door of new hires, with employees at times having to be sent up from Richmond to temporarily fill staffing holes at the Fredericksburg VA.
The CNN story quoted a number of providers and frustrated patients in the Fredericksburg area. It also looked into the problem of federal salary caps for VA doctors, and the nationwide doctor shortage all around—both of which were cited by the VA’s Slaven as significant problems in VA hiring.
Suzanne Gordon, senior policy analyst at the progressive think tank Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute, told CNN that cutbacks under Doug Collins, Donald Trump’s VA secretary, deserve a lion’s share of the blame for the understaffing.
CNN noted that the VA workforce has been reduced by about 30,000 employees since Trump took office, and the agency has eliminated tens of thousands of vacant positions.
“The word on the street now … is that, you know, ‘Don’t work at the VA,” Gordon told CNN. “It’s an unstable work environment. It’s a hostile work environment.”
***
Further reading on the Fredericksburg VA Center in The FXBG Advance
Having to Seek Care Outside the VA Can Be Frustrating for Area Veterans
Fight or Fold: The Pattern Fredericksburg Needs to Test on the VA
Veterans Affairs Top Press Secretary Has a Cow, Says he Wants Advance Commentary Taken Down
Column Response: Our VA Hospitals Should Not Be Political Pawns
The VA Should Not Be a Political Pawn. So Let Veterans Ask the Questions.
I wouldn't worry about it.
Larry Ellison is in the process of owning CNN, thanks in a large part to local Republicans (including many of those very same veterans, btw) continually choosing folks like Rob Wittman.
And when that happens, if Mr Ellison's control of 60 Minutes is any metric, we won't be hearing such stories from CNN much longer.
Instead of capturing and killing embarrassing stories like Stormy Daniels back in the day; now they just capture and kill any business that tells the story.
Much, much simpler when you create an atmosphere of fear where everyone self-censors. More efficient. Keeps costs down which we know always keeps the shareholders happy.
If that ain't freedom, I don't know what is, amIright?
Of course, doesn't make the problems go away, but at least no one knows about them, or is willing to say.
And that's the America, again, many of those same sad, suffering veterans voted for and continue to support.
Except, of course, when it discomfits them.
Aren't we great?
Thoughts and prayers. Keep your chins up. Grab them bootstraps, boys......