It was revealed that over 100,000 veterans are currently experiencing three month delays for appointments.
An internal audit that has now been released by the struggling agency has shown that the Veterans Affairs clinics are currently facing extremely long wait times for appointments.
These medical centers operated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs often have waits of over 90 days.
In fact, what the audit report showed was that there are over 100,000 vets who are experiencing wait times of at least 90 days for their appointments at Veterans Affairs clinics. The internal audit was based on a survey that showed a massive cover up that had been occurring at the VA medical centers. There are now allegations that indicate that some vets had even died as they waited to be able to receive health care. In fact, the situation regarding these alleged deaths is now believed to be wider and more profound than had initially been believed.
This disaster of Veterans Affairs clinic management has spawned a new wave of recriminations among vet groups and lawmakers.
According to the VA, 76 percent of their medical care facilities had staff members report that they had received instructions in at least one instance that told them to misrepresent the appointment data. Halfway through last month, the VA reported that it had discovered that there were 57,436 veterans who were continuing to wait on appointments that were not able to be scheduled within a period of 90 days. Moreover, approximately 43,000 vets had appointments that were over 90 days from the date of the survey.
According to the VA, throughout the last decade, there have been 63,869 new enrollments into the health care system of the VA that had made requests for appointments that were never scheduled.
The agency also added that it was now working to contact everyone who had been struggling in making appointments for health care with their Veterans Affairs clinics, in an attempt to try to expedite their care. It currently has over 1,700 medical centers that serve more than 8.9 million vets, making it the largest health care system in the United Sates.