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New Post has been published on http://misguidedchildren.com/veterans-affairs/2014/05/the-phoenix-va-secret-waiting-list-battle/19970
The Phoenix VA secret waiting list battle
The Phoenix VA is proving why so many conservatives are against Obamacare. At this very government medical facility, there was a secret waiting list and this led to veterans dying. While there is so much defense and commenting on how it’s the law, so get over it, VA hospitals prove why it needs to be gotten rid of.
The Phoenix VA lists
Here is some of the facts about the secret lists, via the CNN investigation, that killed veterans.
“I feel very sorry for the people who work at the Phoenix VA,” said Foote. “They’re all frustrated. They’re all upset. They all wish they could leave ’cause they know what they’re doing is wrong.
“But they have families, they have mortgages and if they speak out or say anything to anybody about it, they will be fired and they know that.”
Several other high-level VA staff confirmed Foote’s description to CNN and confirmed this is exactly how the secret list works in Phoenix.
Foote says the Phoenix wait times reported back to Washington were entirely fictitious. “So then when they did that, they would report to Washington, ‘Oh yeah. We’re makin’ our appointments within — within 10 days, within the 14-day frame,’ when in reality it had been six, nine, in some cases 21 months,” he said.
In the case of 71-year-old Navy veteran Thomas Breen, the wait on the secret list ended much sooner.
“We had noticed that he started to have bleeding in his urine,” said Teddy Barnes-Breen, his son. “So I was like, ‘Listen, we gotta get you to the doctor.’ “
Teddy says his Brooklyn-raised father was so proud of his military service that he would go nowhere but the VA for treatment. On September 28, 2013, with blood in his urine and a history of cancer, Teddy and his wife, Sally, rushed his father to the Phoenix VA emergency room, where he was examined and sent home to wait.
“They wrote on his chart that it was urgent,” said Sally, her father-in-law’s main caretaker. The family has obtained the chart from the VA that clearly states the “urgency” as “one week” for Breen to see a primary care doctor or at least a urologist, for the concerns about the blood in the urine.
“And they sent him home,” says Teddy, incredulously.
Sally and Teddy say Thomas Breen was given an appointment with a rheumatologist to look at his prosthetic leg but was given no appointment for the main reason he went in.
Administrators answer back at the Phoenix VA
Here, after three weeks of dodging CNN, is the response from the Phoenix VA director, Sharon Helman.
But in an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Helman and her chief of staff, Dr. Darren Deering, denied any secret effort to cover up or hide wait times.
“We have never instructed our staff to create a secret list, to maintain a secret list, to shred a secret list — that has never come from our office as far as instruction to our staff,” said Deering.
“It’s never come from me,” added Helman.
Only hours later, watching Helman and Deering make those statements to CNN, Foote shook his head in disbelief.
“Are you kidding?” asked Foote incredulously.
The 24-year VA physician and clinic director, who recently retired and went public with the details of the list, went on the air publicly for the first time with CNN one week ago.
“They started this secret list in February of 2013,” Foote continued. “At some time, they changed over from paper to electronic, in early summer, maybe approximately June or July. And transferred names over to the electronic waiting list. And she [Helman] was called on an ethics consult evaluation about that — it’s written down, documented in July.”
The e-mails Foote referred to were reported by CNN in its original Phoenix VA story last week. The e-mails from July 2013 show that top management, including Helman, were well-aware about the actual wait times, knew about the off-the-books list and even defended its use to her staff.
In one internal Phoenix VA e-mail, dated July 3, 2013, one staffer raises concerns about the secret electronic list and that officials are praising its use:
“I have to say, I think it’s unfair to call any of this a success when Veterans are waiting 6 weeks on an electronic waiting list before they’re called to schedule their first PCP appointment,” the e-mail states. “Sure, when their appointment is created, it’s can be 14 days out, but we’re making them wait 6-20 weeks to create that appointment.”
The e-mail adds: “That is unethical and a disservice to our Veterans.”
Places like the Phoenix VA is the reason that socialized medicine is a bad idea. While some VA hospitals have excellent service, the budgets have made it nearly impossible for decent service at all locations. The problem usually is not the doctors, nurses and volunteers, it is the bureaucracy that is the drain on money, resources and the lives of the veterans who showed they are willing to put their lives on the line. That is what Obamacare will become.