VA Hospitals in Critical Condition

The Veteran's Affairs Department is as much as $2.5 billion short of operating funds for the year. They're shutting down services -- but hanging up pictures of their Secretary.

The VA system is being flooded with 250,000 new patients in a single year -- 40% of them veterans returning from Aghanistan and Iraq. The Washington Post sums up some of the cuts the VA's made around the country to save money:

"According to documents released at recent meetings of the House and Senate Veterans Affairs committees, the VA hospital in White River Junction, Vt., was forced to shut its operating rooms temporarily because of a lack of maintenance funds to repair a broken heating, ventilation and air conditioning system. Hospitals in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Louisiana and eastern Texas stopped scheduling appointments for many veterans."

There are delays for vets needing health care, too:

• Portland, Oregon: 6 months for non-emergency surgery
• Bay Pines, Florida: 30 day wait for 7,000 veterans seeking primary care appointments
• San Diego: 750 vets on a waiting list as the hospital cuts corners to pay bills

Just last month I told you how the VA had made it a top priority to make sure all their facilities had a picture of VA Secretary Nicholson hanging in the lobby.

With protests popping up around VA hospitals facing cutbacks or closures -- the Secretary might not want anyone to know what he looks like. By the way, that's him in that picture there. (WashPost, HT: T. McGhee) [Photo Credit: US Govt]