Over 100 veterans met with Montana VA Health Care leaders in Missoula Wednesday night, some to ask, “Why can’t I get care?
The leaders came to Missoula at the direction of VA Secretary Robert McDonald, who’s called for town hall meetings to get feedback from veterans to try to rebuild their trust in the wake of national criticism for long delays in treatment and cover-ups about false scheduling records at VA facilities in Phoenix.
The vets at the meeting in Missoula sounded happy with their VA doctors, but it’s the agency’s bureaucracy that has some frustrated and worried.
"How did those guys down in Phoenix die?" Roy Rando from Frenchtown asked.
Rando says he's been waiting since November to get an appointment for a third-party laser treatment referral.
“My problem isn’t that critical," Rando said, "but the thing is, what if someone comes in who has a much more critical problem with these third-party providers, and they ignore the referral? What are they supposed to do?"
Rando has heard reports that dozens of veterans in Phoenix died while on VA waiting lists.
A report from the VA Inspector General in August said there’s no direct link between the deaths and being on the waitlist.
But VA bureaucracy is clearly intimidating to lots of vets, like Kimberly Dixon and her husband Connor. They met and got married while serving in the Marine Corps. Connor’s from Knoxville, Tenn., and Kimberly’s from the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona. She came to get advice on what to do if she needs treatment.
"It’s hefty paperwork, it really is," she said. "Unless you know how to navigate it, you become that disgruntled veteran with the VA. And you have a lot of older veterans here who don’t understand the system as well, and even I’m confused, and I’m 28 years old."
Another veteran told a story about how his family came to visit him in Helena while he received treatment for PTSD, but had to spend the night in their truck because of how an employee interpreted a VA lodging rule.
Johnny Ginnity, Acting Director of Montana VA, says these kinds of stories are unacceptable. He says the VA needs to work on empowering their employees to be more flexible in enforcing VA policies.
"They don’t know that Johnny Ginnity is going to support them if they’re within the policy but, you know, try it a little bit different," he said. "I think, once we have that consistency of leadership, and build that trust within the whole team, that there’s going to be a little bit availability to be more responsive, or a little bit more creative."
Ginnity says a VA clinic expansion is already underway in Hamilton, and they’re looking at moving the Missoula clinic into a larger building in downtown Missoula in the next 2-3 years. A 23-year Air Force veteran, Ginnity says he’s able to take the criticism.
"I know," he said. "I understand. I don’t take anything personal. I’m up for the challenge. I know there’s going to be good days there’s going to be challenging days. But in the long run, taking care of the veteran is exactly what I want to do."