The U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs pledged on Wednesday to improve health care for Georgia’s veterans, who are often plagued by long wait times and inadequate services in the state.
“The most important function of a VA facility is that our veterans feel comfortable and trust the care that they’re getting,” Denis McDonough, the U.S. Secretary, said at the Atlanta VA Medical Center in Decatur.
McDonough joined U.S. Sen. Jon Osoff at the Medical Center, where they discussed new federal measures to improve care for military veterans. In particular, they encouraged veterans to take advantage of a new law, the PACT Act, which expands health care and benefits for those who were exposed to burn pits and other toxic substances during their service. According to the VA, the PACT Act is one of the largest health care and benefit expansions for veterans in U.S. history.
“We are celebrating passage of bipartisan legislation that strengthens veterans health care more than anything Congress has done in generations because our veterans have earned it,” Osoff said. “They deserve the best.”
McDonough and Osoff also addressed issues that veterans confront when seeking medical care in the greater Atlanta area, like staggering wait times for services. At the Atlanta Medical Center, the average wait time for new patients to receive care is 72 days, according to a report from 11Alive. Nationally, the average wait time for V.A. hospitals is 15 days.
McDonough said he’s made it a top priority for hospitals to calculate and publish those wait times, and they’ve opened several new clinics. The issue is finding enough staff to provide that care, he said.
“The infrastructure is open, but we’re struggling to get all the personnel we need,” he said.
Reporters also asked McDonough and Osoff about recent failures, like when officials were slow to take disciplinary action after a VA employee brutally attacked an elderly veteran in Fort McPherson, according to Channel 2. In another instance, critical mail — including payments and veterans’ medical records — that should have been processed in hours or days piled up for as much as 10 months in the basement of the Atlanta Veterans Affairs hospital.
McDonough said that the VA workers must hold themselves accountable to Georgia’s veterans.
“Then, [the veterans] will determine whether we’re successful or not,” he said.
Earlier this year, the Department of Veterans Affairs also proposed replacing problem-ridden and crumbling clinics and hospitals across the Southeast, including the four major hospitals in Georgia. The multi-billion dollar demolition and rebuilding proposal would transform how veterans health care is delivered in Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina. That work is ongoing, and they plan to soon update those recommendations, he said. Many veterans are living and moving to the south, the Secretary said, and his department wants to continue to build facilities to accommodate those needs.
“We will continue to make sure that this infrastructure is ready for the influx of veterans here,” he said.
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