VA Secretary Robert McDonald embarked on a two-day visit to Atlanta today that includes meetings with local veterans and VA staff.
Two veterans who have been critical of mismanagement at the VA and care for veterans said they were impressed that McDonald took the time to listen to their concerns.
“I trust this guy,” said veteran Bob Teets. “When he says he’s going to clean up VA there are people out there shaking. They should be.”
Sherman Howard, a Navy veteran, said he told McDonald about leadership problems at VA Atlanta that serve to scare away good doctors and staff, negatively impacting the care available to veterans.
Howard said he told McDonald that veterans with mental health issues struggle to get the treatment they need. He said he also mentioned aggressive police tactics used by VA police toward veterans.
“In the short time I talked to him we covered a lot of ground,” Howard said. “I think he’s a genuine and sincere person. Whether he can pull it off, I don’t know. There’s a lot of people that need to be hired and a lot of people that need to be fired.”
One of the meetings on McDonald’s schedule includes officials from the VA national Health Eligibility Center, which oversees health enrollment and eligibility decisions for millions of veterans across the country. The center has been plagued by problems in recent years, including a backlog of hundreds of thousands of health applications, allegations of shredding veterans applications and whistleblower retaliation complaints.
McDonald will also speak at the annual conference of the National Congress of American Indians today at the Hyatt Regency. Tomorrow he stops by Morehouse College to make a pitch to medical students.
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