talented as her, can teach the party opposite anything when it comes to constantly changing from one contorted position to another. my honourable friend also mentioned, taking advice and inspiration from a certain parliamentary sketch writer, and if she is hoping that one day he might make her the target of a his acerbic wit, be careful what you wish for, because i ve been called many things in my time but i m not sure i will everforget many things in my time but i m not sure i will ever forget being branded the titch in vacuum packed underpants. but on a serious note, she has only made a huge impact in her short time in this place and nowhere more than in herfantastic campaign to improve childcare provision inspiring the chancellor to announce 30 hours of free childcare a week for under fours in the march budget which is a landmark policy which will make an enormous difference to families around the country and she should be very proud of her part in making that happen. she
the flu season is getting worse. the center for disease control saying the virus has gained steam in the last week. 32 states are reporting an increase of patient traffic at doctor s offices and hospitals up from 26 states that week before. also the busiest week for flu symptoms in nine years had lots of folks say that s really bad if you get it. arthel: i heard back. the gridlock in washington could have a far-reaching impact on public health including members of the military and their families because military hospitals and dental clinics will be canceling primary care appointments and elective procedures. dr. manny alvarez. dr. manny alvarez camassia managing editor of fox news helps.com. i read your piece on the website and basically you are saying the health care system is being harmed by the shutdown. tell us how. listen, this is a 24 hour, 48 hour event, we are not going to see any major problems.
health care system. because they perceive it to be a good system. and in my view, there are areas of the country, of the southwest, phoenix, the south, other areas that have experienced a huge increase of new veterans, of older veterans, of the vietnam war era, and the crises that the v.a. has not stood up and said, you know what, we need more resources to take care of veterans if we re going to provide them with quality health care in a timely manner. something that every veteran in this country deserves and must receive. let me ask you about one specific element in the inspector general s interim report today. which i found sort of blood curdling. and it was about 1,700 veterans at phoenix, who are not on the list. who are not on the wait list. and what the inspector general s interim report says that as a direct consequence of not appropriately putting veterans on the wait list, phoenix leadership significantly understated the time new patients waited for their primary care appoin
list. who are not on the wait list. and what the inspector general s interim report says that as a direct consequence of not appropriately putting veterans on the wait list, phoenix leadership significantly understated the time new patients waited for their primary care appointments. and they did in their performance appraisal accomplishments, which is one of the factors considered for awards and salary increases. so at their meetings where they re negotiating essentially their own bonuses and the basis of their own bonuses, that s when these numbers came into play in terms of what was real versus what these veterans lived experience was. thereafter, the inspector general notes they will be looking into potential criminal allegations, if they find them and working with the department of justice. and the u.s. toeattorney is working with them on that. rachel, again, what i think the point is, is that if they did not have the resources, the doctors, the nurses, the other staff needed to
lawyering up. well, it is curious. they did in the i.g. report, find paper printouts of hundreds of records where people were asking for primary care appointments at the v.a. hospital. they were never entered into the official computer. they just had a paper of it. so yesterday that dr. thomas lynch there, he said there were no wait lists. however, his staff did tell him what they referred to as interim work products. so the paper wait lists were not wait list, they were interim work products. that s some beautiful bureaucratic legalese. yeah. sounds like a funny way to change the verbiage on that. could this be a tipping point for president obama to call for the resignation of eric shinseki should he choose not to step down himself in the first place? the chorus of people on both sides of the aisle is getting much louder. the vfw also, but it s not just