Veterans Administration reviews and complaints

I agree with all that you described. So many of us combat veterans suffer from abuse of this sort from primary care so-called doctors. A quack doctor, doctor westphal Clearlake CA outpatient clinic told me that she would not complete the consultation with me because I had contacted a patient advocate to advocate for me to arrange appointments - appointments of all things, simple appointments at which westphal had failed to manage. We need to unite.

These so called doctors at the Milwaukee V.A. hospital have absolutely no interest in helping us veterans. I had a similar experience with a major lower back problem and after being Xrayed the doctor told me their was absolutely nothing wrong with my back. She put in the official record that my only purpose for my visit was to obtain narcotics. Upon arriving home I made an appointment with a doctor at our local hospital and an MRI was ordered. I was diagnosed with spinal stenosis and had surgery at St Lukes hospital in Milwaukee on May 9th of 2011 and the problem was fixed. Upon writing a letter to the administrator I received a reply that their investigation showed that protocol was followed and no action was taken.So I guess protocol says its OK to deny a veteran the help he needs. I wouldn't send my dog to the Milwaukee for treatment and they don't give a crap about us vets. We are just fodder for the wealthy in this country we can go fight their wars so they can make loads of money from the conflict to line their greedy pockets with. I hope they all rot in hell. Bonnie K.

I have submitted a claim for my back, there response was I only seen a Dr once in 1980 low back strain and once in 1983. However I seen a Dr in the Navy seven different time due to back issues. I had a Motorcycle accident in 1978 and a motor vehicle accident in 1980, both accident causing back issues. I have been trying to get my back service connected for years, with no success. I have had back issues since I got out of the Navy in 1985. If the VA took care of Veterans this would not be a issue.

All these complaints I've read here make me think I obviously must have been enrolled in an entirely different VA system. since 1976. I'll try to watch what I say here so as not to be offensive or offend anyone. Any statement I put to paper is not aimed at any one general person. It's simply my over view of the VA...an arm of the federal government that I have been a member of for just shy of 40 years. I have had just 1 bad experience with the VA in all those years. And it was with a telephone operator, hardly a medical doctor or any other professional person that makes up the VA.

When I first got out of the service after a 3 year hitch, I had 1 year to go to a civilian dentist at VA expense. I did go, and received more care from the civilian dentist than most any 21 year old deserved. Gold fillings...periodontal surgery just to name a little of what was done. I'm 60 now and the primary reason my teeth are in such good shape now is due to that one year I was able to see a civilian dentist for free. The VA paid for every bit of this. During my 3 years in service, I never left the country. I was not disabled. There was no ulterior reason that the VA paid for all this dental work. It was offered to every single brand new veteran out there. All you had to do was get off your ### and go do it. 3 years after that, I had a pilonidal cyst removed in surgery at the VA hospital in Lake City, FLA. This cyst was so bad that it was getting to where I could not walk without it hurting. It hurt to sit down. I had to sleep on my side. It drained when it decided to, and then filled back up again. This pilonidal cyst remains to this day one of the most painful medical conditions I've ever experienced. I kept thinking it would go away on its own but it didn't. Finally I went to the VA in Lake City, FLA for them to have a look at it. They told me I needed this surgery as the only real means to be rid of this cyst forever. I agreed with that evaluation and the surgery was performed. I've never had any pain since. The surgery was a total success. Thank you VA...

So the years roll by and I remained in good health, don't recall needing the VA for much of anything till I was 50. My family has a distinct history of heart disease on the men's side. My own father died of a heart attack when he was 51. His father died of a heart attack at 43. Putting me in line to possibly follow in their footsteps or keep an eye on my very own heart. The only way in the world I could "keep an eye" on my heart was the VA. At age 50 I was diagnosed by a VA cardiologist and he determined that I definitely was in need of heart bypass surgery. Sooner than later. That surgery was performed at the VA hospital in Palo Alto, CA. It was a huge success. I'm still alive a decade later. There are simply no two ways about it. I would be dead today had I not had that surgery. I have a small tree removal business. I don't hire anyone because I enjoy being out there by myself working. It can be extremely physical work. I do all my own climbing as needed when I cannot get my bucket truck in close enough to the tree. My work affords me a decent quality of life, and thanks to the Veterans Administration...I am able to do this work. There are no two ways about it. I suppose that I might as well throw in one final thing the VA has done for me. At one of my routine bi annual exams, my Dr at the VA clinic told me that I had a very low testosterone count. This was at app 55 years of age. She ordered regular testosterone injections, and after a few months of this put me on Androderm 1.62 gel. And for good measure I was also prescribed 4 100mg viagra per month. What a difference! The only reason that I include this is because I want to make myself very clear...the VA has gone "above and beyond" their call of duty in regards to my health. I never left US soil in my 3 years in service. I had an infantry MOS and more or less didn't really do much of anything my 3 years in the Army. Got my discharge in 1976 and got out and went on about my business. I owe the VA a debt of gratitude that I can never possibly repay. I have been treated with utmost respect and courtesy from any and all that work for the VA. For me anyway...there just haven't been many glitches in my relationship with the VA. When I have an appointment...they never keep me waiting. They are always prompt and efficient. They take great care of me. In all honesty I know nothing of all the complaints I've read here. None of this has happened to me. Ever. Thank you very very much VA...ECB

Oh, lovely, yet ANOTHER useless void of a website for 'complaints' that go, of course, unanswered. Sites such as these exist for PR and nly PR to make it seem like vets are actually gettīng 'above average' çare. One problem is the total absence of VA's being rin STRICTLY by federal standards and practices, and allowing politicians at the state level to act on their VA's directors and protocols. IOW, directors of VA's are assigned not because of any tremendous interest in interfacing with or being experienced in runnīng care that is client centered, but rather running care that is protocol centered (which the best hospitals do NOT do). Because these incompetent, irrational, and callus directors have no fertile or innate understanding of medical needs from the patient perspective, they yurn a blind eye, as a matter of routine, and deaf ear away from veteran complaints. They tend to reward those staff who complacently 'tow the party line', rather than practice the standard of care, especially n regards to pain management. THEN these same idiots spend MILLIONS on sites like this, ineffectual advocacy for vets, and dealing with Tort claims vets finally resort to, often because by that time they have begun experiencing 'retaliatory care' from their providers, which many VA directors rationalize and/or ignore outright.

I moved to a new state. NONE of my new VA doctors were willing to spend any amount of professional time reviewing external data from my previous VA! Who does that? I know of NO decent doctor who doesn't need to know your previois and current diagnosis, previous treatments, current rx's etc. My health care achieved previously, that had greatly improved my quality of life to where I could seriously consider reentering the work force, have been totally undermined by this new VA. I have had to change doctors twice and mental health here is useless. I utterly despise the staff of the VA here. I curse them and can only hope they suffer my same fate ne day. The patient advocates are dogs with no teeth. The vet center internally, from the top down, is infected with administrative arrogance such that vets who protest, contest, and attempt to address the arbitrary and poor care they get soon find out they are 'labeled' as 'difficult' and the sometimes subtle, sometimes not, 'care' becomes one of retaliation. 'We'll show YOU how things work aroind here' is the message sent to the veterans who dares to question these doctors, especially those from overseas. This is not a xenophobic statement, but rather a realistic one. Indian folks grow up with the idea of a caste system firmly taught to them, and find the American mentality frustrating and too independently minded. Most assume a role of privoledge and dominance where health care is concerned and will act on patient health without the veterans consent, knowledge, or approval. All the PR in the world, gentlemen, will not altar the fact your service men and women, who offered their young lives up to the ideals of an increasingly once great country, are being abandoned, slighted, and in some cases directly abused by the VETERAN's health care system. Notice that word is not 'doctors health care' not 'congresses health care', nor any other name. So I ask you, the elected officials in particular, as well as the directors of the VA hospitals everywhere: hom will you serve first? The veterans or your own detached agendas. However you answer, there is One who knows the truth of your hearts and from Him you be given no quarter for any rationalization, legal or otherwise. To veterans, ladies and gentlemen the time to unite is past. Laws are being enacted by government that directly target you. Unite under the radar, grow your numbers, and above all : trust no entity nor group that claims to 'represent' you. If they did, you would not be suffering in such large numbers after so many different wars and conflicts where we did the bidding of soft politicians. Unite and form a NEW group. Avoid paper trails, pamphlets, flyers, and online communications while you do. Smile in the face of their duplicity and know a new day will come. When great doctors serve even greater veterans, all, and lawyers and politicians understand what they have forgotten as soon as they are sworn in: that it is they who serve US, not the other way around. Out with the old, in with the new. Unite and RISE! Rise! Rise!

Is America great or what? I am being very...very...sarcastic.

The VA care is nothing short of quackery. The Dallas VA first floor clinic 3 is ONLY conducting trials on statin drugs on the patients -- without the patients knowledge or consent and the patients are even lied to about what is going on. The adverse side effects are horrendous and moreover are ignored by the quacks. The patients actually think they are seeing a real doctor and receiving real medical care, not being subjected only to clinical trials.

When patient family intervenes, the quacks try to wedge themselves between the patient and patient's family and even go so far as to threaten to "make a police report" against family members for questioning what is going on.

Our Vet is suffering kidney issues, eye problems, muscle and nerve problems due specifically to the statins. He is now in a wheelchair and has been in the ICU in a private hospital twice from what the VA quacks did to him. We had no idea it was all due to VA statins. Now the VA has mailed even higher dose of different more dangerous statins to him that they refuse to even put on his medication list. They also outright lied and stated those statins were a different medication. They are, in our opinion trying to kill him.

We've had enough of that horrific situation and are attempting to find care elsewhere that is valid affordable medical care. We were also advised, strongly advised, to file criminal charges against those quacks and the Admistration.

The Dallas VA quacks even boast that they can readily experiment on more than 43, 000 patients available to them. Patients are not provided copies of their labs, they get no diagnosis, the loons who call themselves "doctor" don't even look at the patients. They are too busy on the computer.

Not once in 3 years has our Vet even been examined by any "doctor" in so-called "clinic" 3 on first floor. Moreover, they refuse to provide doctors orders or even nursing orders to home caregivers. They also simply expect all caregivers to administer experimental meds as if the caregivers are part and party to their sorry experiments. They even refuse to discuss the patient's symptoms with caregivers.

The VA system at large is not health care, valid health care is not their focus. The wellbeing of the patients is not their focus. The Dallas VA is a dangerous and deadly meat factory run by incompetent human garbage who have no business whatsoever in medicine.

As I stated, they are quacks. In my view, they are such horrific quacks, it's a miracle none of those Vets have yanked them out to the parking lot and beat the crap out of every one of them.

Today is Veteran's day, and I am having a very difficult time sending Happy Veterans day emails to people. It doesn't seem right to include "happy" and to celebrate this very sad day. I honor veterans deeply, and I can't acknowledge them enough, but apparently from the new stories, and the stories that have been posted here, the Veterans Administration doesn't share the same sense of honor and consideration. This is not a new realization. I was married to a Viet Nam Vet. He had a multitude of physical, emotional and mental issues, the result of which our marriage came tumbling down. I know I wasn't alone. As much as I cared for my husband, it was terribly painful to be married to him. I never blamed him, but I have always felt that the VA shortchanged him, along with thousands of other young men and women who put their lives on the live, day after day, to fight a war that no one understood the reasoning behind. Many wives, husbands, and children were left behind with only sorrow, and grief to live with forever.

I know this all goes back a long way, but nothing has changed except that the disregard and disrespect for our troops by the VA has increased. When ever I hear someone in our government thank the troops for their courage, and service to our county, I get very angry. Few, if any, of their children have, or do, serve in our armed forces. They have no personal frame of reference, and apparently the sentiments are so surface that they close the door on our troops and pretend like they are being cared for.

Our veterans deserve to be treated with honor, respect, dignity, and help of every type. The VA needs to be properly funded, and managed. They must start to approve the requests for assistance from the men and women who are desperate for their support..

Yes, we as citizens must also come to their aid in what ever ways we can. But our tax dollars support the VA and expect that they rise to their responsibilities to all of us.

So, today, I want to say that I Honor our veterans, but I can't bring myself to say "Happy Veterans Day". I wish I could. And I wish that our veterans had the life that they deserve to have, and that there would be reason to say those words.

May God and the VA bless our veterans today, and every day.

Shari

I agree with everyone of the above. My Dad is a Vietnam Veteran and he is getting the worst treatment EVER through the VA. What happened! What happened to "We take care of our Veteran's"! My Dad has written SEVERAL letters to the "complaint" office and has received NO results. He is a diabetic, has high blood pressure and is now legally blind. He is being treated, but if he didn't have a hand in his health care and the help of my mother, he'd be dead! They give him too much med; then not enough. They put wrong medicines together. And it goes on and on. Don't dare talk to the doctor about what the heck is going on! They don't even know! They just want to keep up their quota so they don't get pulled for doing the wrong OR right thing! Where does he go for help?!

sorry, thats June 2011, not June 2006, re: new pain management guidelines, i.e. learn to live in pain.

The Veterans Administration, as it was formerly named, currently The Department of Veterans Affairs, is a dinosaur. The massive beuracacy that exists in this Presidential Cabinet level entity is a waste of the taxpayers money, a disgrace to the honor of our Veterans, a circus, a living nightmare for it's patients, and a highly ineffective/ineffecient method of getting the maximum amount of care to the consumers it was created for, the VETERANS of The United States of America. The good employees working for the Veteran, are in a situation where if they find a problem, and report it, they can very well loose their jobs, credentials, and even their freedom by being locked up in a psychiatric ward to keep them quiet. This is why the rampant abuse of the Veterans goes on unabted. Their is an unseen group within the VA that exists as a self serving entity for those who play ball, and as a board of damnation for those who bring problems to light. I do not care how many times the VA changes its name, mission statement, patient's rights, or whatever they change, nothing changes for the long term. A recent example has been the VA saying they were going to do all within their power to treat patients living in chronic pain. They actually followed through, and made the lives of many veterans bearable, for a while. Now the pendulum is coming back to where it was. The VA is looking for ANY reason to cut off care for those suffering in REAL chronic pain. If they cannot cut the Veteran off of their pain management, they cut it back to the point of it being ineffective. Just last year they were telling patients to be proactive in their pain management, that if they knew a certain activity was going to cause more pain, to take their meds in advance, to mitigate, or abate the pain. Currently, as far as I know June 2006, they are telling patients to not take their meds that way, to take it only when the pain is unbearable. They are saying this after at least 11 years of telling patients to be proactive? Yes they are.

I have been involved with the VA system since 1970. I have seen more patient abuse than I can remember. I have had nurses "acidentaly inject me with too much medicine, almost killing me, and leaving me with permanent physical impairments. I once had a nurse get so mad at me she injected me with so much morpheine that it knocked me out, and I woke up in a pool of urine. I layed their, unchecked for hours according to witnesses. I have been given medicine to treat my service connected disability that created a whole new and worse disability, then told basically to go to the devil, they were not giving me an increase in my rating, even though I could no longer work and support myself and my family. I have complained to Patient Advocates, only to have them work in a manner that was not in my best interest. One of them actually got an award, and a reserved parking space for NOT helping me in an effective way. I have had the chief of the outpatient clinic try to change my Primary Care to another VA, without my consent, then call me into a conference room full of doctors, and nurses trying to intimidate me into going to the other clinic. I had no one on my side. I tried to place my tape recorder on the table, to get a record of what was said, and was intimidated to the point that I just put it away. I stuck to my guns, and the Chief of Medicine had to back down because I knew it was my RIGHT to be seen at the VA of my choosing. I have been told to come up to the clinic to pick up forms, then when I got there had the VA Police called on me. Why? For doing what i was told to do. They tried to bully me, and intimidate me, with theit clubs, handcuffs, and guns, to no avail. When all was said and done, i was told to get forms in the future from the clerk downstairs. When I needed forms again, and wnet where they told me to go, I was told they did not have those forms, never have had them, and that I had to go up to the clinic to get them. This was totally insane! I have had severe dental infections, and the clinical pharmacist would not release my pain meds to me, made me wait, in pain, for them to come in the mail. I have had doctors tell me, back when the VA treated pain as a mental condition, that they KNEW I was in desperate pain, but their Chief of Medicine would not let them prescribe anything but darvon, and tylenol #3. They would tell me when it got bad to take 4 - FOUR - Tylenol #3 ever 3 to 4 hours. I didnt crap for a month! My father always had a very low blood pressure at every one of his PCP appointments, and they never looked into it. Guess what he died from? An enlarged heart. I have seen nurses give meds to patients that the patients refused. They would sneak them into their IV bags. One man, in particular, was blind, and adamnantly told the nurses and doctors that he did not want a certain medication. They hung it on his IV anyway. I checked the labels, and told him, and his family. This was the same time when the nurse tried to over dose me on morpheine. I have been sent home, white as a sheet, with werird blood values, babbling incohernently, only to be admitted urgently to a local hospital with liver failure from meds the VA gave me. One more hour, the local hosp ER told my wife, and I would have been dead. The VA let me drive home like that. I didnt even know my name!

I could go on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on! The only saving grace, if you are a VA patient, is if you get a good doctor. If you are unlucky enough to get a sorry one, you are S-O-L. The VA is FUBAR! I feel really bad for our returning VOLUNTEER combat veterans, who have been injured. The VA is going to MAKE them live in pain. I have already talked to some of them, and they are being treated like crap. Their REAL pain, they are being told, is in their head, when the REAL tests, prove otherwise. It sickens me to see all the NEEDLESS sufferring of our nations best, bravest, and most honored Veterans.

Their is a system wide, core problem at the VA. Its systemic, and untreatable; otherwise all the proposed changes they have tried would have made an impact other than making things worse. Whats the cure? CLOSE the VA. Give Veterans the same insurance that Congress has, and let US choose where, and from whom we want our healthcare. The alternative is to make Congress get their healthcare from the VA. No special proveleges, no VIP treatment. Take a number, sit down, and shut up!

Write your representative and demand that Veterans be given an alternative to the VA, a choice, which ALL VETERANS deserve.

I have been going to the VA since 2006 after returning home from Iraq. I was diagnosed with PTSD and also was injured creating severe back pain. The person I am seeing for my PTSD had been great! my primary car doctor on the other hand has been nothing but horrible! Ive gone foe xrays and an MRI to which it took months to even know the results from my x ray. I recieved an MRI about 2 weeks ago and called numerous times and basically got hung up on by the gold team nurse at the PHL Va. I am living with severe pain every day and they give medication that even private practice doctors would prescribe. Ive been to my local hospitals ER twice and this with no insurance due to the fact ive been unemployed since returning home. it is ridiculous the way ive been treated after going to war for my country. after my x ray the doctor gave me a cream for what i was later told was nerve damage and a spinal abnormality. Yes, a cream... I have tried numerous times to get answers and i am treated like ### every time I call there!