"It was not a shock to us because it's been going on for many years," said Ron Kizer.
Kizer and his wife Mary are Army veterans who got out of the service in the late-60s and early-70s. They've had a series of documented issues over the years with the Fayetteville VAMC, including several of Mary's misdiagnosed health problems. Record show that in 2009, she was put in a hospital bed with someone's dried blood on the railings.
Their most recent issue deals with a wait for primary care. Several months ago, she had a cancer scare based on a scan from an outside doctor, and returned to the VA for follow-up with her primary care doctor.
"At that time the primary care physician says 'I do not have time to cover everything. See you back in 6 to 9 months,'" said Ron Kizer.
In April, after the Kizers took issue with the wait, and were dissatisfied with a referral, they received a letter from director Elizabeth Goolsby saying the couple's constant complaints have "alienated our physicians making it difficult for them to provide medical treatment and maintain amicable relations."
Because of this, Goolsby wrote she was referring the Kizers to outside treatment through the Non-VA Care Coordination program.
"They act like they don't care at the VA," said Kizer, showing countless correspondence between the couple and state representatives. Senator Richard Burr's office is currently looking into the Kizers' current problem.
"They (the VA) will not listen, and our leaders like I said, have not listened. But now it's coming out like you said yesterday on the news that Senator Kay Hagan asked Sloan Gibson (Acting VA Secretary) to come down. Why has she waited this long?"
Daniel McColl, a Hope Mills Korean veteran, said he know the waiting game all too well. In May, he was told he could not see a primary care physician until August.
"Primary care doctors got too much," he said. "I mean they've got to save everything."
But it was the three year wait to see a pulmonary specialist that makes McColl shake his head.
"This thing...I ain't never seen anything like it," he said. "There were times I was driving home (from the VA), and I didn't think I would make it."
Over the phone, a veteran who wished to remain unidentified claimed to have waited more than a year for primary care. He believes the problem is much worse than the report indicates.
"This great big Army base we got out there is the largest in the world as far as population, so you'd think they'd be number one out there," said McColl. "Like I said before, there's no accountability."
MOVING FORWARD
On Tuesday afternoon, State Representative Renee Ellmers issued a statement saying.
Ellmers plans to attend a series of meetings and briefings at the Fayetteville VA, and co-sponsored a bill that ensures veterans receive immediate outside care.
Following the release of the report Senator Kay Hagan called on Acting VA Secretary Sloan Gibson to visit Fayetteville's facility, as he continues to make rounds at problematic VAMCs across the country.
"I am also concerned that several additional VA facilities in North Carolina require further investigation," said Hagan, noting an expectation of full transparency and accountability from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The Fayetteville center also responded through a statement admitting their problems had been "magnified" by growing demand. The VA's coverage area is comprised of 21 counties where 157,000 veterans live outside the nation's largest military installation, Fort Bragg.
Currently, according to the audit, just over 2100 veterans are waiting to schedule their first appointments at the center. Wait time for initial primary care is an estimated 83 days, six times longer than the VA's goal of 14 days. It places Fayetteville third worst in the country for new patient wait times, behind Honolulu and Harlington, Texas. To get an appointment to see a new patient specialist, Fayetteville averaged 62 days, right behind Durham's 69 days, which ranked 7th worst in the country. Durham's VA tops the country's longest wait for a new patient to see a mental health care specialist at 104 days, with Fayetteville waits at 27 days.
"There's no doubt that we're living in a community overpopulated with veterans," said Kizer. "They knew that this Iraqi War and Afghan War were going to be costly, cost thousands of lives and there was going to be tens of thousands of veterans nationwide with permanent injuries and stuff like that. They did not prepare for this."
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