Bob Dole, Donna Shalala to Head Bush Panel on Nation’s Veterans Hospitals

why arent here more women in the VA top positions . we need new faces in the VA..

As a veteran, I can tell you first hand that the VA has serious internal problems. Once you are in the system, you get decent care, but the problem is getting into the system. For myself I applied for (and was certified for) an increase in my disability over 18 months ago.. that issue is still pending despite the statement by a review examining doctor stating that I was “totally and completely disable as well as unemployable.”
That is me… Imagine a person coming out of active status and then having to wait for 8 months or more to get therapy or disability benefits. The transition should be seamless, but it is anything but seamless and in the process veterans are being hurt and hurt badly both physicallly, mentally, and financially by the insane internal garbage in the VA. Walter Reed is a great hospital and personnel get great care while they are there – and that is the key phrase – “while they are there” because once they are discharged, the responsibility falls to the VA and then things go to hell in a handbasket.
I sincerely hope that by bringing these issues to light that the political fall out will be so severe that the VA will have to change the way they do things.
Thanks,
John Pamer
Korea vet

I think that its a shame that our veterans are not given the best care that our country can afford.I believe that we should always take care of our own people first.

Who can i tell about My Help,to get Help.Iwes in Veteran.I am not Diabete so VA wont give me Disability

I have watched my husband lose his self estem over the last few years due to a diagnosis of cancer caused from agent orange in vietnam. He has been fighting for 7 years to recover his 100% disability that he lost after having a radical lumpectomy of the right neck and shoulder area to remove the cancer. It outrages me to think that our goverment can send money oversea to assist other countries when we can’t even take care of our own here in the United States. Having to wait for goverment to decide your fate is physically, mentally and finacially a strain on the entire family. The other part of this wind fall is the attempt of a vetran to receive social security benifits due to your medical condition and they have the same problem getting through the red tape. That is another area that has failed our citizens as well. Those that don’t deserve it get it, and those that need it fight for years. Please, help our vetrans regain their pride, self estem and dignity back into their lifes.
Thanks

This is typical of the goverment overlooking problems until a well known person brings it out to the media. Bush acted surprised by the conditions at WRAH. He should have known if he had gone there to visit the service men and women once in a while. This Commission’s Report of Recommendatons will probably end up with all of the other investigative reports; in the round filing cabinet. I feel sorry for ALL veterans enduring those conditions and bureaucratic hassles to get help. Liberty and justice for all? What a farce!

I spent only six years in the service and was medically discharged due to Severe Degenerative Disk Disease and Fibromyaligia. Which to me was a misdiagnosis because they couldn’t find the real one. I was discharged in 98 and have been shuffled through the VA so many times I have lost count. My health has declined drastically since then. Due to POOR and inadaquit care, or should I say incompitent care!
Most of the doctors I have seen just want to shove you out the door and be done with it. VERY few actualy give a crap! They only hear what THEY want to hear. I get a copy of my records on a month by month basis. They NEVER write down what I say. One doctor says one thing while another writes and does something different. Records are inconsistant all over the place. Doctors and nurses never return phone calls. It takes months to get an appointment. It took me 8 months to get a Podiatry appointment! Sometimes they will call you and cancel an appointment for whatever reason…never mind that you have waited 4 months for the appointment.
Because of their lack of care my Degenerative Disk Disease has gotten so bad that I am awaiting total disk replacement of my L-5. Was scheduled for Nov. 04 but haven’t had it yet. My Neurosurgeon hasn’t even called me to let me know what is going on!
Typical.
The VA won’t even put me on Fosomax. Even after the Neurosurgeon requested it for my surgery. Not even the Endocrinologist would prescribe it.
The sad part is…I just turned 38 last month!!!
I’m on Methadone for my multiple, daily pain but THAT doesn’t even stop the SEVERE neck pain and headaches I get.
The VA is just so overwhelmed that I don’t see it ever changing. I’ve been going through this for going on 9yrs! Have been dealing with the pain since it started in 94!It’s worse for us female Vets. I don’t know HOW many times I’ve been told it’s in my head. I just want to SCREAM!!! Look at my Labs, and 40lbs of x-rays, 7EMGS,4Bone Scans you Moron!
I’ll glady tell you where I get my infamous care. None other than Audie L. Murphy! Right in the heart of downtown San Antonio. I’m a Texas Veteran as well. How nice! I may not have served in a war but my country was not at war at my time of service. If it would have been, I would have proudly gone wherever it asked me to or done whatever was asked of me. That is what I signed up to do!!! To SERVE my Country and to do it PROUDLY!

People love our country,but won’t go because they realize what will happen if they are injured. Nothing!!Vote them all out and get new,qualified, adequate, and compassionate people.
A Civilain Nurse of 42 years

Watching the hearings on the Walter Reed scandal was utterly ridiculous! All those congressman busting the chops of everyone at the hospital and pretending they knew nothing about the problem!
These shortfalls have been going on forever, both in the active duty and va facilities. And now, they want to raise all the fees for the Tricare insurance that retirees must pay for in order to receive the care that they were supposed to receive for free for serving our country for 20 plus years!
Its just really demoralizing to think that congress really thinks that we are that stupid.
Liar Liar, I wish their pants were on fire!
They all make me sick, democrats and republicans.

The VA health care system is a joke…especially for FEMALE veterans like myself. We are ENTITLED by law to receive medical and necessary mental health care from the VA. If the VA refuses or can not provide such health care, they ARE obligated to fee-base such services to community doctors.
Yeah, it sounds good in theory. But this entitlement seems to apply to ANY SC male veteran while female vets are SERIOUSLY neglected. The VA in Oklahoma is making a serious attempt to push all SC FEMALE vets OUT of the VA.
I’m not sure what’s worse: the disrespect and rudeness that 99% of the VA staff shows me or the written legal threats that the Chief of Psychiatry has put in writing. The VA has done so much damage and made my PTSD so much worse by neglecting and intimidating me.
I’ve sent letters to Senators and Congressmen. Yet no one helps. It’s the “good ole boy” system here. My husband is addressed as “SIR” at the VA and I hear: “HEY Lady!” and
told to NOT bother my PCP with my kidney failure until or unless I can’t “pee.” Yeah, that’s EXACTLY what I was told just before I called a local ambulance. My BP was only 56/40, rushed to ICU, and received a blood transfusion and emergency kidney surgery.
The VAMC in Muskogee REFUSED to treat me at the ER because the only female nurse was on emergency leave. I ended up having 5 surgeries from 2003 to 2005 and lost my right kidney.
The VA told me to go to the nearest hospital and no to worry about the billing. Well my 5 surgeries totaled $85,000. The VA decided to classify my acute kidney failure as NON-URGENT and DENIED all my medical expenses since 2003.
The VA prescribed Coumadin permanently and then refused to make the necessary blood tests. They still send the Coumadin. It’s the wrong dose and I haven’t been tested through the VA since Jan 2006.
The mental health clinic reviewed my confidential records with clerical staff. Then the VA MHC held an AMBUSH meeting where I thought I was to get individual therapy…instead I walk into a trap. Several of the staff gathered in this room to inform me that I had exceeded my maximum benefits for mental health treatment through the VA. Meanwhile I’ve been bombarded with nasty calls and written threats from the staff!!!
The worse off that my physical health got with each surgery along with the months I spent bedridden…all meant I became more of a health RISK to the VA. I disposed of…given the boot, all because the VA was UNQUALIFIED to treat me and REFUSED to admit THEIR inadequacies and SUB-STANDARD care. Here in Oklahoma, the VA urology appointments have over a one year wait for a urologist who specializes in treating only MEN. The lab tests are all based on MALE standards…even the simplest directions for urinalysis are MALE based.
Where does that leave me?? I have been TRYING to re-pay all my medical bills, all my private health care, all my prescription costs…ENTIRELY with loans. Well for the next 20 years, I’m paying a hefty price…thanks to the VA. (if I manage to live another 20 years with one poorly functioning kidney and severely UNTREATED PTSD.
Personally I sincerely wish for the Oklahoma VA to be investigated for discrimination and NEGLECT of SC female veterans. Like I said, the VA is a pitiful joke! I feel so badly for the new female vets entering the VA system in hopes of the IMPOSSIBLE…a VA system that actually cares about a veteran’s well being.
Being a disabled female veteran and dealing with the VA is equal to a slow, agonizing way of life that wouldn’t even be accepted in 3rd world countries. Other countries take care of all their veterans and re-pay them for their personal sacrifices.
In the USA, veterans are treated as damaged goods…and WE HAVE to constantly FIGHT “OUR” VA battles. In uniform, we are the heroes in battle and as soon as we are discharged…we become “the forgotten and the betrayed” by the VA (damaged system throw-aways, whom no one seems to care about anymore).

I’m a 100% service connected Viet Nam vet, the problem with the VA is these misfit doctors they employ, who couldn’t get a job anywhere else. These doctors know they can misdiagnose you or not give you the treatment you need and deserve and nothing is going to happen to them because they are immune to suit according to VA policy. If these VA doctors were required to meet the same standards as doctors(real doctors) are requiredto they might think twice before refusing to treat you or treating you for something you don’t even have. If the VA would contact any of us who are 100% service connected about how we feel the treatment we do or don’t receive, they might just find out they have real problems with the attitudes of their doctors and the administrators who are supposed to be the ones that insure we get the healthcare we need and deserve. Start with firing Nicholson, the problems start there and work their way down. You can’t always trust another Veteran, remember Max Cleland, he had the best opportunity to help Veterans and he did very little. I hope and pray all these concerned Senator’s and Congressmen pass Craigs bill that would offer us the opportunity to use outside healthcare, Craig stated that all Vets would still seek VA healthcare,I think he would be surprised to see how many of us would seek real healthcare from real doctors and who would be diagnosed with problems that these VA doctors have refused to address.Bush is still shirking his responsibilities like he did when he was in the National Guard, and those of us who really served and went to war for this country, deserve better

I am a disabled vet, i had to retire from a job i loved because of the pain i deal with everyday. my claim for 100% has been turn down and then the va, put a claim in for me that i had nothing to do with. causing my original claim to be pushed back. I have been retired since 2005 and i am still waitin for the hearing they claim i am going to get. When are all these broads that you all keep setting up, going to start working to really help us and not just keep giving us words. Words don’t pay the bills.