As the days
go by, the "secret list" keeps getting longer and longer as more VA
hospitals all over the country are being found out of
possessing this "secret list."
As we all know, the VA hospital in Phoenix Arizona
has been the center of this "secret list" controversy when a whistle
blower, a retired doctor who used to work at that hospital for several
years, divulged in an interview with CNN this cover up created by
managers to hide the fact that more than 1,400 veterans were forced to
wait many months to see a doctor and 40 have died while waiting for
their medical appointments.
To this date, 42 other VA Hospitals and more than
60% of 216 VA hospitals all over the country have also been discovered
to have practiced this cover up, that now heads must roll.
This resulted in the forced resignation of Mr. Eric
Shinseki, the Secretary of Veteran Affairs. There was a clamor for his
resignation.
The Obama Administration needed a sacrificial lamb,
and for a head to roll to appease the anger of veterans of this country
and the noisy clamor of congressmen on both sides of the aisle for the
head of Mr. Shinseki.
I like Mr. Shinseki. He's a retired Army four-star
general and a Vietnam veteran who was severely injured during his
combat tour there. He's a good man, a brave man, who laid his life on
the line for this country. He's an American hero.
I don't think he was at fault for this abhorrent
secret list. Surely, he didn't know of the existence of this secret
list until its divulgement. I think the people at fault were those
administrators and managers at VA hospitals who were aware of this
secret waiting list, yet filed their reports to the VA secretary that
everything within their area of responsibility were fine and dandy and
that veterans under their care were well taken care of.
They did this to receive their bonuses. And that's truly abhorrent!
It's their heads that should roll, not Mr. Shinseki's.
Being a disabled Vietnam-era veteran myself, I use
the Puget Sound VA facility in Seattle. True, I sometimes have to wait
for long periods of time for my primary care appointments and follow-ups
with physician specialists, but despite of the wait, I've received
excellent medical care.
I guess I am one of the lucky ones.
The VA's internal documents showed that the troubled
agency has known since at least 2008 that VA hospital managers and
administrators manipulate the scheduling system to mask delays in care
-- what a 2010 memo called "gaming strategies." That memo listed "inappropriate scheduling practices" at VA medical facilities dating back to 2008.
And in 2012 it was concluded that the VA's reporting
on its medical- appointment waiting times was "unreliable, outdated and
in need of complete overhaul."
Abhorrent, indeed.
A TRAITOR IN EXCHANGE FOR FIVE TALIBANS?: Another BHO scandal that's also brewing right now across the country, is the groundswell of rising anger over BHO's palpak decision
on the deal that freed U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl in exchange for
five senior Taliban leaders and murderers of Americans.
And the gradual telling of facts that this army
sergeant deserted his post to join the Taliban. And that six soldiers
from his platoon died fighting the Talibans while tracking him down.
I'll have more on this in my next Barako column. For now, that's all. JJ
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