Committee wants to gauge what is going on and how the quality of care is being delivered, i would ask you to spend a day Walking Around inside the local hospital talking to veterans and discussing their health care experiences, not sitting in front of a preselected panel of veterans to support sweeping jenlizations and to stoke public outrage. The fact is that the v. A. Health Care Services are excellent. Patient satisfaction Services Support that assertion. The primary complaint we hear all of the time from veterans is how long they had to wait to be seen for an initial appointment or to receive care. At its core, this is an access problem, not a quality of care problem. These are not the same thing. And to be clear, sending veterans outside of the v. A. To get private care is not the solution to this problem. It might be part of a solution, it is not the solution. Particularly for veterans who ly on it might be part of a solution. It is not the solution. Particularly for veterans to
Thank you all for coming. I want to thank our panelists for what is going to be a very important hearing. The rules will be that i will make some opening remarks, senator burr, the Ranking Member will make opening remarks, members will have three minutes, and i will keep people to three minutes because it will be a long hearing it, and that we will go to secretary shinseki, and the undersecretary. Excellent second panel and a very good third panel as well. It will be a long hearing, and we will get through it. Let me begin by just making a few basic points. Serious allegations have v. A. Personnelt in phoenix and other locations. I take these allegations seriously, as i know every member of the committee does, which is why i have supported an thependent investigation of v. A. Inspector general, and they are in phoenix doing a thorough investigation, and my hope is the report will be done as soon as possible. What i have stated and i will repeat right now, is that as soon as that report
Chairman, for holding this hearing. I certainly echoed the concerns of my colleagues and the need for structural and systemwide changes. Healthcare system is a promise that we made to americas veterans that we will take care of them in return for their service and sacrifice. The close to 10 million veterans that access care through the v. A. Systems need to trust that they are receiving high quality care when they need it, and i do note that 10 million veterans signed up for the healthcare huge here that is greater than the population of a number of states, including the state of hawaii. When we fail to provide proper care for our veterans, we not only fail them, but their families as well, and these families have also sacrifice for our nations security, and provide essential care and support for our veterans. While the immediate focus might be on the phoenix case and similar allegations regarding a hospitals,ther v. A. It is important to see what is happening systematically at the v.
I do not think any took place did the v. A. Take to respond to the memorandum that to see to it that hospital directors followed their orders . We have worked very hard to root out these inappropriate uses of the scheduling system and these abuses. We have been working continuously to try to identify where those sites are and what we need to do to prevent that from happening. It is absolutely inexcusable. The schedulers response validity is to nature that that program is administered with integrity. What do you do when you uncover one . What do you do to hold them accountable . The individuals are held accountable. I cannot give you an example of specifically, but if someone were found to be manipulating the scheduling system, they would be disciplined. Would they lose their job . I do not know whether that is the appropriate level of punishment or not. We can probably give you a little better answer to this, because youre focused on scheduling. In 2012, we involuntarily removed 3000 e
For the whistle blower harmelin that your association is set up. We heard from the Veterans Affairs to rent again began. It is always things are fine. Curious, were you all hearing that from your association, from your about the secret waiting lists . And never heard that coming from your groups. Im curious about how this can happen. I just was looking through the article from may of 1970. Burst on the scene. No, heres his spirit and in this committee we have heard one of the spectrum folks inside. Talk a little bit about the budget question, but what you were hearing from members. All say as i mentioned in my oral statement, the one luxury is our side is that we conduct. We have Trained Medical staff to go in two centers and see whats going on. The and see firsthand where the shortages are. In the for nurses, social workers call what have you. The difference is we have an agreement and we worked those differences out to come to a resolution that will benefit veterans. This is all play