The Associated Press has just reported today that President Barack Obama has made an announcement about the Veterans Affairs Secretary Shinseki’s resignation in a briefing from the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House. The president said that Shinseki resigned due to systemic problems plaguing the veterans` health care system.
President Barack Obama stated he accepted Shineski’s, a retired four-star general’s, resignation with considerable regret during an Oval Office meeting. Shinseki has faced rising calls to step down from lawmakers and from both parties since a derisive internal report came out Wednesday finding there were broad and deep-seated problems in the agency’s health care system. This system provides medical care to approximately 6.5 million veterans annually.
Shineski told President Barack Obama the agency needs new leadership and he doesn’t want any distractions. The president stated that Shineski has served with honor and he also agreed; we don’t have time for distractions; and we need to fix the problems.
The president named Sloan D. Gibson, currently the deputy VA secretary, who will run the department on an interim basis while he searches for another secretary.
Gibson, a career banker, has held the No. 2 post at the department since February of this year; coming to the department after serving as president and chief executive office of the USO, a nonprofit organization providing programs and services to U.S. troops and to their families, after having a 20-year career in banking.
Gibson is the son of an Army Air Corpsman who served in World War 11; he is also the grandson of a World War 1 Army Infantryman.
Shinseki stated in a speech earlier Friday to a veterans group that the problems that were outlined in the report were totally unacceptable and a breach of trust that he finds indefensible. He announced a series of steps will be taken to respond, including ousting senior officials located at the troubled Phoenix health care facility which was the initial focus for the investigation.
Shineski concurred with the report’s conclusion that the problems extended throughout the VA’s 1,700 health care facilities nationwide, and saying, “I was too trusting of some” in the VA system.
It is a goal of the VA to try to give veterans an appointment within a 14 days period of when they first seek care. Treatment delays and irregularities in recording patient waiting times have been documented in numerous reports from government and outside organizations for years and have been well-known to VA officials, member of Congress and veteran service organizations.
Controversy swirling around the VA stems from allegations that employees kept a secret waiting list at the Phoenix hospital and up to 40 patients may have died awaiting care. A preliminary VA inspector general probe into allegations found systemic falsification of appointment records at Phoenix and other locations but there has not been a determination on whether any deaths were related to the delays.
The agency has some 9 million enrolled now compared to 8 million in 2008 and it was struggling to keep up with an enormous demand for its services. This reflux came from the returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, aging Vietnam War vets who are having more health issues, a move by Congress to expand the number of those eligible for care and the migration of veterans to the VA during the last recession after they lost their jobs or switched to the VA when their private insurance became more expensive.
Shinseki said the last several weeks were challenging but that his agency took caring for the veterans seriously.
Shinseki told a homeless veterans group, “I can’t explain the lack of integrity, and I will not defend it, because it is not defensible.” The beleaguered Cabinet official received a standing ovation and loud applause.
In an inspector general’s report there were 1,700 veterans found to be in need of care and were at a risk of being lost or forgotten when they were kept off an official waiting list.
The report confirmed earlier allegations of excessive waiting times for care in Phoenix, with an average 115-day wait for a first appointment for those on the waiting list which is nearly five times as long as the 24-day average the hospital had reported.
Shinseki told an audience of several hundred people from around the nation who have been working with the VA on helping homeless veterans, and saying, “This situation can be fixed; and leadership and integrity problems can and must be fixed, and now.”
Shinseki said the government will not give any performance bonuses this year and it will use all authorities it has against those who instigated or tolerated falsification of wait time records and that performance on achieving wait time targets will no longer be considered in employee job reviews. He also has asked Congress to support a bill by Rep. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, which will give the department more authority to remove senior government employees who are in leadership positions.
The House did pass a similar bill that would give the VA more ability to fire up to 450 senior executives at the agency.
Those in attendance of Shinseki’s speech in a Washington downtown hotel were tremendously friendly, supportive because of his work to decrease the homelessness among veterans. He pointed out 25 percent of the number of homeless veterans has fallen since 2013. The audience stood giving him a long standing ovation with whistles and hoots as he entered the room again before and after he spoke.
James Wheatley, a 20-year veteran of the Army, who works at mental health facility helping veterans in Indianapolis, In., said, “Shinseki has made a difference; I’m living it.”
Steven Nelson, a veteran who works at an employment center in Tucson, Arizona, said, “Shinseki is a god man; when I go to the VA (for health care), I’m well taken care of and everybody I know is.”
Barbara Kasey Smith is the writer of this article based upon an Associated Press Breaking News Report.
Source:
Associated Press Big Story.ap.org