Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Veterans and elected officials continue to share concerns and sound off on the issues that persist inside the Buffalo VA Medical Center.
Many callers during "Bellavia" on Wednesday criticized the amount of time the patients have to wait for care, specifically the amount of time they wait in the waiting rooms and the amount of time it takes them to get in for a scheduled appointment.
"You call to make an appointment, 'Oh yeah, sure, we can make an appointment.' And it's two months down the road, six weeks down the road, that kind of thing. When you're dealing with potential cancer and things of that nature... it's a little scary," said one veteran with host David Bellavia.
While others displayed concern with lack of staff and lack of treatment options, causing veterans to seek care at other facilities.
"My husband had to be outsourced because there was no doctor that does that particular surgery," said another caller.
Assemblyman Pat Burke on Wednesday confirmed what we've been hearing as others veterans have shared similar issues with him, veterans who receive care at the Buffalo VA Medical Center. He recently held a roundtable discussion listening to local veterans.
"There's a specialty care health care issue in Western New York. People have to go to Pittsburgh or Rochester or Cleveland to get specialty care often. That's an unfortunate regional problem that we have to fix," said the assemblyman with WBEN.
But the assemblyman also acknowledges that there is a "bureaucratic problem" going on.
"They drag their feet," says Burke. "If the VA doesn't have that care, they're they're able to get outside care, but they need sign off from the VA and those that processes can take forever. I had a gentleman, a veteran of Vietnam, [tell me about] his serious foot issues. He's in pain all the time. He was told he had to be in documented pain for 28 days before they would talk to him about it. So you have to suffer for a month before a healthcare professional will talk to you about addressing your pain."
Burke also adds he believes that the medical professionals at the Buffalo VA Medical Center are not trying to be inhumane on purpose, just caught up "in the bureaucracy and the mess of their jobs."
In addition, Burke acknowledges the understaffing, which he has also heard is a real issue inside the medical facility.
"There's aren't many great incentives to go work at the VA. And if you do, you go to get your experience, and then you leave, it's a really hard job, and you're being underpaid. So it's certainly a resource problem, it's a staffing problem, it's an administrative problem, and then, of course, it's just a bureaucracy problem. And it's, of course, we have very specific problems here in our local VA, but obviously it is a national issue."
What are the solutions here?
Most recently, two Buffalo VA officials have been removed from their positions over concerns regarding the treatment of local veterans. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs confirms an investigation is underway.
The state plays a role in processing at the Buffalo VA Medical Center, according to Burke.
"We should be hiring more, more staff to process veterans' health needs. You know, the sixth floor of the VA has state employees there, and they should be doing that, and they should have many more [employees] in-house there. And then I would add, when you are obligated to provide care, and you can't do it, there needs to be a streamlined process to getting approval so that they can get outside care right now. It takes forever, and sometimes it just doesn't happen."
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