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VA to Iraq war vet: ‘We’re not accepting any new patients’

Iraq war veteran Chris Dorsey figured that no one would believe he had been turned away from a U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs clinic when he sought an appointment for post-traumatic stress disorder. So when he went on Tuesday to another facility, the VA Oakwood, Georgia, Community Based Outpatient Clinic, he flipped on his smartphone…

Iraq war veteran Chris Dorsey figured that no one would believe he had been turned away from a U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs clinic when he sought an appointment for post-traumatic stress disorder.

So when he went on Tuesday to another facility, the VA Oakwood, Georgia, Community Based Outpatient Clinic, he flipped on his smartphone camera.

On the video, Dorsey is heard waiting patiently in line for more than 5 minutes. When he reaches the check-in counter, he informs the desk he needs a transfer from the Athens, Georgia, VA system and an appointment.

The response?

“We’re not accepting any new patients — not this clinic,” the VA employee behind the desk says, without providing any extra information, assistance or guidance for treatment.

According to Dorsey, his previous experience– getting turned away at the VA clinic in Lawrenceville, Ga.,–prompted him to bring his camera to the Oakwood facility.

“I told my family about this stuff happening and they’ve said, ‘You are crazy, no one would do that.’ Well, the video explains it,” Dorsey said after posting the video on Facebook and Youtube.

via VA to Iraq war vet: ‘We’re not accepting any new patients’.

Both my own experience, and annecdotes from peers seem to track with a general trend- actual medical care received from the VA tends to be quite good.

But dealing with the bureaucracy of the VA is an administrative nightmare.

 

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  1. Gunny G

    Reblogged this on HAD ENOUGH YET??? ~ WE WHO VOTE DECIDE… 0!….

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  2. timactual

    Aw, the poor thing had to wait in line for over 5 minutes. Oh, the horror. I suggest he not try to get a driver’s license in most of the US. Or try to eat at an Outback Steakhouse.

    There are, according to my brief search, 31 VA medical facilities in Ga. Why this guy needed to go to at least three of them puzzles me.
    http://www.va.gov/directory/GUIDE/state.asp?dnum=ALL&STATE=GA

    “If it’s happening to me, I can’t just be be the only one,” he said.

    Perhaps because, as he was probably told –
    “North Georgia, Edwards said, has an inadequate number of doctors — VA or civilian.”

    In many areas of the country, including my own, lowly civilians must wait weeks or months for an appointment with a doctor or dentist. IF they are accepting new patients. Then, once you have an appointment, you will sit in the doctor’s office for more than five minutes.

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  3. LT Rusty

    (a) The guy wasn’t waiting 5 minutes to see a doctor, he was waiting 5 minutes to be told that he wasn’t going to be allowed to see a doctor no matter how long he waited.

    (2) No general civilian health care practitioner of any sort has any mandate that says he has to see any particular person or group of people.

    (D) The VA, on the other hand, does have a mandate to care for a particular group of people, and this guy was a member of that group.

    I respectfully suggest you reconsider your position as stated above.

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  4. SFC Dunlap 173d RVN

    Concur w/LT Rusty….respectfully.

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  5. timactual

    a) So what?

    b) Again, so what? The “mandate” the VA has been given is to provide free or low cost medical care and drugs to any clown who has, for example, spent a couple of months shuffling papers at Ft Hamilton, in NYC. It is a “space available” system.

    And, again, 5 minutes is not much of a wait. I have waited longer when I went on sick call on active duty. While bleeding. Lines are a fact of life, even for veterans.

    Give me a good reason to reconsider and I will.

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  6. Paul L. Quandt

    timactual:

    I agree, you are in full rectal defilade on this one.

    Paul

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  7. LT Rusty

    Tim, we’ve all spent time in lines. When I was on active duty, I waited in line at NAVSTA Mayport’s clinic until closing time, then drove myself 35+ miles to NAVHOSP Jax to wait another 6 hours in the ER before seeing the doctor’s face go instantly pale and being admitted on the spot. None of us minds waiting in line for care, so long as there IS care. Point is, there needs to be care at the end of the line.

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  8. Shaun Evertson

    Lost in the richardbeating is the fact that the va is a firetrucking trainwreck for veterans. Sure, a percentage of those who become somehow embedded in the system receive some level of care, and some of that care is excellent. The majority of that care IS NOT EXCELLENT. It’s firetrucking cookbook medicine duct taped onto the @$$ end of bureaucratic data collection. It’s a crapshoot whether you receive good care or not, Every veteran who uses or attempts to use the va health care system is at the mercy of uncontrolled and unregulated bureaucratic whim. The va exists first and foremost to be the va and to provide jobs for entrenched bureaucrats. Do not imagine that care and benefits for veterans are by any stretch of the imagination a priority of the va.

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  9. ultimaratioregis

    Amen. I would love to see your last two sentences on some VA Hospital website as their mission statement. At least it would be truth in advertising.

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  10. Shaun Evertson

    Me too! Any PLA hackers lurking out there? 🙂

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  11. timactual

    I can only repeat what the founder of the North Georgia Veterans Outreach Center said;

    “North Georgia, Edwards said, has an inadequate number of doctors — VA or civilian.”

    If there are an inadequate number of doctors in the area, there will be inadequate medical care. Period. And all the gnashing of teeth or videos in the world will not make any available..

    There is a solution; move. We all have to make choices in life, and the choice of where to live is influenced by, among other things, the availability of medical care. Speaking of JAX, many retirees live there (or used to) precisely because of the available medical facilities. Mr. Dorsey needs to move back to Athens where he did receive care or wait until the local medical facilities have an opening. Life is inconvenient, even for veterans.

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  12. timactual

    Like some folks say, the VA is a preview of Obamacare. Government bureaucracy is government bureaucracy, no matter which department.

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  13. SFC Dunlap 173d RVN

    One ought to notice how VA hospitals (not usually VA clinics), are co-located with teaching Medical Centers/Schools. The staff VA Doctors are mostly Dept. heads or Chiefs. The bulk of the “Doctor” work is done by new Doctors going through Medical School. Cheap labor and many patients upon which to learn. Not saying it’s a great system.

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