Wednesday, August 13, 2025
D+278/206/1255
1942 The Manhattan Project commenced with the aim of developing an atomic bomb
2004 Hurricane Charley devastated Punta Gorda
In bed at 10, up at 5:45 from a dream with Mike and Janine. 66°, high of 77°, mostly sunny day.
Meds, etc. Morning meds around 9. Kevzara injection at 10:20.
My FB post this morning: "One old guy's thoughts about Trump flying to Alaska for 'a listening exercise." What this signals is that he will listen to Putin saying he's not pulling out of Ukraine, which isn't a real country, and he's not interested in a ceasefire. This will lead Trump to cease support for Ukraine, i.e., supplying military supplies, equipment, and intelligence support. He will leave the Ukrainians to their own inadequate resources and to such help as they may receive from Europe. He will base the decision on the need for "realism" and the need to protect the primacy of the U.S.'s own national security. He will claim that he has done all he could possibly do to end the war, for which he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, but 'you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink,' or something like that, perhaps 'it takes two to tango.' He will blame Obama for the seizure of Crimea in 2014 and Biden for the invasion in 2022, and remind us and the rest of the world that the war never would have happened had he been in the White House. He will return to the much safer and more beautiful Washington, now protected from criminals and cleared of the homeless and other irritants by armed troops. Once home, he will continue to count the money he's making from his crypto ventures and to extort money from businesses and other billionaires for his $200 million ballroom, and life goes on."
Washington Post: Every VA medical center has severe staffing shortages, audit finds by Meryl Kornfield. Excerpts:
The independent watchdog for the Department of Veterans Affairs said the department’s health system is facing a severe staffing shortage of clinical and nonclinical workers that has worsened since last year — at the same time the department has shed tens of thousands of workers and recruited fewer medical workers.
The inspector general’s office released its annual report Tuesday, revealing the extent of staffing shortages that have plagued the department for years and have worsened this year. All of the Veterans Health Administration’s 139 medical center campuses reported lacking workers, and reports of severe shortages for specific jobs increased 50 percent from the previous fiscal year.
However, the survey of the medical centers, which was completed in April, did not fully capture the extent to which the Trump administration has reduced VA’s workforce. Many of the workers who took the latest buyout offer left after the survey was completed.
Follow live updates on the Trump administration. We’re tracking Trump’s progress on campaign promises and legal challenges to his executive orders and actions.
Veterans Affairs Secretary Douglas A. Collins has argued the department, the second largest in government, is bloated and inefficient and needs further staffing cuts. He initially pushed to slash the workforce by 15 percent, though he later backtracked on those plans. At the same time, he has acknowledged the department needs more medical staff members and blamed a nationwide shortage of health care workers.
“We are the same as every other health care system,” Collins said in a May hearing for the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee. “We are struggling to recruit doctors, nurses and others just as anybody else.”
In response to the report, VA press secretary Peter Kasperowicz said the findings aren’t a reliable indicator of staffing shortages because the “report simply lists occupations facilities feel are difficult for which to recruit and retain, so the results are completely subjective, not standardized and unreliable.”
Kasperowicz said the department-wide vacancy rates for doctors and nurses are 14 percent and 10 percent, respectively.
Reacting to the report, Democrats warned the staffing situation probably was worse than the inspector general found.
“This report confirms what we’ve warned for months — this Administration is driving dedicated VA employees to the private sector at untenable rates,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (Connecticut), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said in a statement. “Staffing shortages at the Department are getting significantly worse, including critical veterans’ health care positions and essential jobs that keep VA facilities running.”
Rep. Mark Takano (California), the ranking Democrat on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said in a statement that the report “confirms our fears” and criticized Collins.
“Instead of making VA an employer of choice, Secretary Collins continues to vilify the VA workforce and strip them of their rights,” Takano said in the statement, referring to the news last week that VA is no longer recognizing most workers’ collective bargaining rights. “Now, VA is facing critical staffing shortages across the country, leading to decreased access and choice for veterans. Veterans deserve and have earned better.”
. . . .
Department leaders announced plans in March to slash the department’s workforce by up to 83,000 workers, leading to tanking morale within the workforce and backlash from veterans’ groups and lawmakers. Critics of the cuts said it would be impossible to slash that many employees without straining medical services. The department reversed its plans for mass firings in July, announcing instead that it would reduce staffing by nearly 30,000 employees by the end of this fiscal year through retirements, attrition and deferred resignations.
Collins has repeatedly assured lawmakers and VA employees that he will not cull the department’s medical staff. Mission-critical positions were exempt from voluntary buyouts, the department said.
But Veterans Affairs was not immune to staffing reductions earlier this year by the cost-cutting U.S. DOGE Service: The department lost more than 1,600 probationary workers, including Veterans Crisis Line operators who were later brought back.
The inspector general’s office has been surveying staffing in the department for over a decade — and it has repeatedly concluded that medical centers are understaffed in key medical jobs. For instance, last year the watchdog said that 86 percent of campuses reported severe shortages of medical officers — which includes primary care doctors, psychiatrists and other positions — and 82 percent reported severe shortages of nurses.
But Veterans Affairs was not immune to staffing reductions earlier this year by the cost-cutting U.S. DOGE Service: The department lost more than 1,600 probationary workers, including Veterans Crisis Line operators who were later brought back.
The inspector general’s office has been surveying staffing in the department for over a decade — and it has repeatedly concluded that medical centers are understaffed in key medical jobs. For instance, last year the watchdog said that 86 percent of campuses reported severe shortages of medical officers — which includes primary care doctors, psychiatrists and other positions — and 82 percent reported severe shortages of nurses.
TheAbout a month ago, I received a letter from the VA informing me that my primary care physician, Dr. Chatt, had retired and that I would be assigned to another PCP. I have heard nothing more since then. The medical center as a whole has 286 physicians covering 72 specialty areas of medical practice. There's no telling who my new doc will be, but it's a fair bet he or she will have a heavier caseload than Dr. Chatt had. I wonder whether she 'retired' from the VA to join a private sector practice, perhaps make more money with a lower caseload. I wonder by how much wait times for specialist referrals will increase under Doug Collins, and whether I will end up having to revert to the private medical market if things get too bad.
No comments:
Post a Comment