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Charlotte-area military veterans looking for a doctor are waiting longer than the national average to get an appointment - still.
Veterans continue to combat long wait times, months after taxpayers spent billions of dollars overhauling the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Veteran says his family forgotten by VA
As of February, the Salisbury VA system, which includes the Charlotte clinic, has a 90 percent rate of veterans seeing a doctor within a month of their requested date. The national average is 94 percent. Last June, 9,000 appointments were not scheduled within a 30-day goal at the Salisbury VA. That improved slightly to 8,300 last month.
Plagued by problems with access to care and veterans dying while waiting to see doctors, the VA now says it has drastically improved service this past year. The VA said in order to see veterans more quickly, it has increased authorization for medical appointments outside the VA system by 45 percent.
The list of new patients waiting more than three months for an appointment has been cut by 55 percent nationwide.
“The reform effort is going to take time and we've known that from the beginning," said Chris Neiweem, of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. “We're confident (VA) Secretary Bob McDonald knows it's going to be a long process.”
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