Sen. Mark Begich spoke in the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee in regards to the Phoenix VA Hospital. He said he wrote a letter, however now it seems to be more of a systematic issue, happening in many VA hospitals.
Sen. Begich: “I will say from a state that has 77,000 veterans, the highest per capita in the nation, it is impactful in where they get their care. We have been fortunate to be frank with you the work we’ve done with the VA to be able to create access to our health care services to be able to cut some of that wait time out but get better service throughout the state, but when we look at veterans may they be in Alaska today, tomorrow they might be in Arizona, they might be in North Carolina so the service that’s being delivered is critical that we figure out the systematic problem.”
He said he will keep working to help correct the problem.
Sen. Begich: “But to not have the service delivered at the highest level to our veterans is a disservice they earned it, they fought for this country we need to do everything we can to make sure the service is delivered at the highest possible level. So today will be contentious, no question about it. I hope tomorrow we take what we learned today and move to increase the capacity and increase the performance of the VA.”
