FORMER VA SECRETARY NICHOLSON STILL BLOWING SMOKE --
"So we've had tremendous support from the
president and
from Congress for our budgets -- and I think the
VA
will continue to be adequately resourced."
Former VA Secretary Jim Nicholson
The following article is proof that there is no
cure for denial.
Former VA Secretary Jim Nicholson still insists
that the VA is adequately funded.
At least he's gone.
For more about former VA Secretary Jim Nicholson,
use the VA Watchdog search engine...click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/
sessearch.php?q=jim+nic
holson&op=ph
Story here...
http://www.estripes.com/
article.asp?section=104&article=49465
Story below:
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Retiring VA chief sees challenges for system
By Leo Shane III
Stars and Stripes
WASHINGTON — The outgoing secretary of Veterans Affairs knows that
veterans deserve newer hospitals, better reservist benefits, more clinics
and the best trained staff in the country.
He’s also confident that Congress will make it happen.
“While war is controversial, the warriors are not,” said Jim Nicholson in
an interview with Stars and Stripes on Thursday. “People on all sides of
the aisle are grateful for them. So we’ve had tremendous support from the
president and from Congress for our budgets … and I think the VA will
continue to be adequately resourced.”
Nicholson, who retired from the Cabinet-level post last month, admits that
will be a significant task.
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Already he sees gaps in non-active-duty troops’
knowledge of the system, their access to medical care and inequities in
the education benefits they receive, issues with which the department will
struggle as guardsmen and reservists continue to play a large role
overseas.
And in coming years, the VA will face a growing number of young Iraq and
Afghanistan veterans with unique injuries while dealing with an aging
infrastructure. The average age of the 153 VA hospitals is 57 years; In
the civilian sector, the average hospital is only 14 years old.
Still, he said the department has positioned itself well by making the
young veterans a “clear priority” in the system, expanding the number of
polytrauma centers and training new clinicians to spot signs of brain
injury caused by roadside blasts.
In addition, the VA has plans to complete four new hospitals — in Las
Vegas, Orlando, Denver and Louisville — and 60 outpatient clinics in the
next few years, expanding the service options for all veterans.
Key with those improvements will be changes in the way VA and Defense
Department doctors share information, a process that Nicholson called
overdue but finally under way.
Better electronic tracking of troops’ medical records and better
transition between the departments were among mandates from the
presidential commission formed in the wake of the Walter Reed Army Medical
Center scandal earlier this year.
“Our electronic medical records are invaluable … but when troops come to
us (from the Defense Department) we still get their records on paper,” he
said. “I’m confident five years down the line, we’ll see a very different
system hand-off.”
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