Veterans voice frustrations with VA clinic
Roughly 40 veterans packed into the Sandpoint Library to voice their frustrations with a new U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs clinic that opened last year in Ponderay.
Much of the issues center around a lack of staffing at the clinic, which in turn, causes a host of other problems, veterans said. From long wait times on the phone to having appointments scheduled four months out, veterans told VA officials that staffing issues leave them frustrated and feeling neglected by the VA.
Local veterans were supposed to meet with VA staff last month, but no VA representatives attended the meeting. Instead, a letter was submitted to be read in their absence and STGI — which was contracted to run the clinic — took the brunt of veterans’ frustrations.
“I take ownership for missing your meeting,” said one of the VA officials. “But I'm here now. We’re here now. Your disgust, anger, irateness, does not fall on deaf ears.”
The first veteran who spoke said that, while he doesn’t have complaints about the care he gets, the ability to get that care is what is frustrating him. Having spent 33 years in the military, he said when his team failed a mission, people died.
“You guys need to know your mission,” he said. “Having 1,700 vets to serve with only two providers is not enough. You’re here to support us and you don’t have enough people to do that. Everyone here has given their sweat, blood and tears for the nation. We deserve good care. Everybody’s doing great but I think we need to kick it up a notch.”
Multiple other veterans agreed, saying the care isn’t usually bad, but trying to get access to that care is what is the most discouraging to them.
“Over the years, I have put less and less effort into getting care because of the lack of service I've always gotten [from the VA],” another veteran said.
After attending the opening of the clinic, the veteran said he stood in line for over 20 minutes to make an appointment and when he finally got to the front of the line, he was told the next available appointment was over three months out.
Another veteran said she is still waiting to hear back about some test results from an appointment she had over seven weeks ago. Eventually, she went online and figured out how to access the results herself because she didn’t want to wait longer in case she had a serious health concern that needed to be addressed.
“If you were waiting seven weeks for a call back for results and something is seriously wrong with you, you’re up a creek without a paddle here,” she said.
After numerous apologies, VA officials said that, until now, the clinic has not been fully staffed. Once the clinic has all the staffing it’s supposed to have, she said she is confident that services will improve dramatically.
“The first year is always the most difficult,” she said. “We’re still building, we’re still improving, we’re changing the way we do things. We're listening to what you guys want and trying to implement changes for that. It’s never as smooth as we’d like it to be but we are working toward the promises we made. We take this job very seriously and we will not allow anything but the very best.”
VA reps said they’re working to onboard the last two employees that will bring the clinic to a fully-staffed facility. While the process takes a while, staff members said they are hopeful that the last newcomer will be officially settled at the clinic by mid-August.
“We get that you’re frustrated, we understand,” another VA representative said. “But please give [the clinic workers] a break, they are doing their best. We will do better. I have no doubt we are going to do better. But it’s going to take a little bit of time.”