I worked at a VAMC years ago and was appalled at what I saw. Shortly after I arrived there, a vet came in to see me and was very distraught. When I asked what was going on he told me about a very close buddy that had just died the previous day. His buddy died from of an oral cancer that was delayed in being diagnosed by the VA. The vet, like so many others, finally got tired of waiting for the VA to get him a biopsy so he went to an outside physician only to find out that his cancer had metastasized. I never forgot and vowed that it would not happen on my watch.

I kept a list of patients that needed biopsies and what the status on the results were. The medical bureaucracy there was insane. Process is the focus - not patient care. The biggest majority of the patients I was tracking would end up having their appointments cancelled for various reasons and never get rescheduled. I would end up rescheduling the appointments myself. There was one patient of mine that took 9 months to finally get the appropriate biopsy done. Thank God it was a benign growth. Every month, sometimes bimonthly, I went through my list and checked the system to see if there had been a biopsy or the appropriate follow-up with the right specialist. I did this on my own time. It opened up for me a whole different can of worms coming across delayed or ignored treatment.

Soon I had the reputation of being a patient advocate - which put me at odds with the rest of the staff. No one was supposed to rock the boat and I was there to constantly challenge their crappy attitudes of cruising to retirement. I was not seen as a team player - at least not in their sense. After a while, staff meetings were held on days when I was not scheduled and I was kept out of the loop. I understood the frustration of the Vets in dealing with that system. Some Vets ended up in mental care simply because of fighting with the VA to get the care they needed and deserved.

I saw patients that had waited over a year to finally be assigned a PCP - only to lose that PCP and then have to wait again to be assigned to another. So many went to the VA on an emergency basis to be seen. It was a joke. Unfortunately for my patients, I lost my job at the VA. So, they were left scrambling again to find help. This was my only regret about leaving.

When all the crap broke loose about the AZ VAMC, I reached out to the congressional committee chair to pass on what I personally experienced and saw. It was a long haul, but finally Vets were allowed to seek outside help. It does not surprise me that they are trying to roll it back. No doubt the program is making them look bad and they would much prefer to operate in the dark while the Vets suffer in silence. Shameful.