By Greg Milam
From Sky News | Original Article
The Veterans Affairs Secretary rejects resignation calls over claims people died because of treatment delays at some VA hospitals.
America’s top veterans’ affairs official has said he will not resign over claims that as many as 40 people died while waiting for medical treatment in the service’s healthcare system.
Eric Shinseki, the US Secretary for Veterans Affairs, said he is “angry” over the allegations of practices at a number of VA hospitals.
Whistleblowers have claimed that staff at one, in Phoenix in Arizona, created a fake waiting list to hide the true numbers of those awaiting treatment.
Names of those who died, it is claimed, later disappeared from the list.
Mr Shinseki placed the hospital’s director and two other officials on indefinite leave last week while the department’s inspector general probes the claims.
Debbie Allen says her husband Mel, a Vietnam veteran who was a patient at the Phoenix hospital, died of bladder cancer after the tests and diagnosis were delayed for six months.
Eric Shinseki, the US Secretary for Veterans Affairs
She said: “It’s disgusting. It’s a betrayal to somebody who was willing to serve his country. And then when Mel needed the VA and needed his country to help him in his time of need, they turned their back on him.”
The American Legion, the biggest veterans group with more than two million former service personnel as members, has taken the unusual step of calling for Mr Shinseki’s resignation.
But the secretary, himself a Vietnam veteran, is refusing to go.
He said: “What I want veterans to know is that this is a good, quality healthcare system, not perfect, and when we stumble across our imperfections we’re going to do something about it, we get to the bottom of it, and to the best of our abilities assure it never happens again.”
The White House spokesman has repeated that Mr Shinseki has the full confidence of President Barack Obama.
Veterans Affairs is the biggest US healthcare system, with 1,700 hospitals, clinics and other facilities and nearly nine million people enrolled.
Since revelations about the Phoenix hospital have emerged, allegations have been made that records were falsified at a number of other VA hospitals including some in Texas and Colorado.
Officials in Phoenix have denied any knowledge of the fake waiting lists or the deaths of any patients waiting for treatment.
