Secretary Shinseki Has Resigned

[Berta]

Source:

Fox News, Pres Obama, 11:19 EST

[john999]

I don't think that is going to fix the VA. Shinseki was just a place holder in a failing system that has been underfunded and mismanaged for decades. Congress needs to change the VA to make it vet friendly. I have many theories on that subject. The VA in my area of my town was going to make an old National Guard Armory into a Vet clinic. The local govt. got involved and sold he property to the highest bidder. Screw the vets. This would have saved me miles and miles of driving, but not it is down the drain. I feel betrayed and I let my congressman know it. Now I think we should just all be under Medicare and let Uncle Sam pay our premiums. I wonder if this will happen since the VA is a master of cheating vets and medicare isn't. If I could get ChampVA with dental and vision included I would never use the VA.

John

[broncovet]

Of course it wont fix VA! Its already known the problem is more widespread than JUST Phoenix! A plague of locusts has infested America, and the president responds by squashing the bugs on the White house lawn, telling people the problem is over! Firing a few people in Phoenix wont change the VA culture of denial for Vets, they have to fire multiple VA execs who have approved each others bonuses for "reducing the time it takes for Vets to get a VA appointment with the doc".

[JR Reihs]

Vet's have been hollering for years that this thing they call the VA is broken in so many areas that it was just a matter of time before the whole thing crumbles......This thing as bad as it is , is just another one of many problems that should have neve been allowed to fester and I really hate the media coverage as it only focuses on this one issue.

Shinseki leaving is just more cover without adressing the entire failure within the system.......This will soon fade away, and the VA will continue to resume it's normal course of action, and Vets will continue to pay the price.

[NavyWife]

No way!

Too bad this wont do anything to change the overall system.

They need to get rid of the bonus system. That encourages lying. Bonus systems are typically for a sales position and have no place in a government job. They can increase the base wage if need be, but the bonuses need to end.

[Chuck75]

You have to admit that the hullabaloo helps hide Congresses responsibility for insuring that the VA "toes the line".

Sadly, the secretary was fixing (but slowly) some of the problems, and progress was being made, more so than in quite a few decades.

I'm afraid that the attention is focused in an area, while a problem, and something that should not be occurring,

is not the area with much more severe and widespread problems. (Compensation and Pension)

While reprehensible, the appointment fiasco pales in comparison to the monumental problems veterans have

with Compensation and Pension.

In addition, the VA has had a past history of just loosing referrals to specialty care (Consults). or failing to even tell the veteran

that they existed or why.

As veterans having to deal with the VA, we know that the VA has been totally screwed up for decades. Tying the can to Shinseki

is a monumental example of how politics can make things worse. It may be that the VA bureaucrats (but I doubt it!) will learn a painful lession

before things drop below the radar.

What to fix and how to fix it?

Finding out what to fix is simple. Really listen to the veterans dealing with the VA.

Scanning the news and VAWatchdog

"Secretary Shinseki's legacy as a combat wounded American warrior now may be brought to an ignoble end by bungling bureaucrats" and witch hunting politicians.

"More progress has been made during the Shinseki administration than any other. Veteran homelessness is improving, Vietnam veterans are getting better treatment for more agent orange conditions, and efforts to repair the giant backlog are in process."

"The Veterans Affairs Department has added only one name to an eye injury registry established by Congress in January 2008, senior VA officials told flabbergasted members of the House Veterans Affairs Committee panel on oversight and investigations today." (And DOD has about 23,000 in it's registry)

"In 2009, the Veterans Affairs Department canceled its patient scheduling system -- dubbed the Replacement Scheduling Application Development Program -- after spending $167 million over eight years and failing to deliver a usable product."

Why? It's now obvious that that it would have disclosed "inconvenient" facts and data, showing that the VA was sorely remiss.

"VA also has reduced down the number of patients prescribed opioids since the IG conducted its investigation in 2012, Petzel said, by offering patients education, training and Web-based tools to help with pain management. As a result, 39,088 fewer veterans received an opioid prescription from the VA in November 2013 than did in October 2012."

In actual fact, the VA just "cut off" many patients, "Cold Turkey" if you will, without any effective alternatives.

Many of those with serious pain complications ended up having to obtain outside medical services at their cost, not the VA's, to deal with the pain.

Edited May 30, 2014 by Chuck75

[mos1833]

is it just me,,, or is it that the system can gather all that information so quick.

i think the va handed the ig a prepaired package / to cover their ass.

ide like to see a list of those who acutally gets fired.

if heads roll at all ???