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VETS COMPLAIN OF DELAYS AND POOR SERVICE IN

"MED HOLD" -- "They had 100 of us in some buildings

that had been slated for demolition and they

had some people in tents."

 

 

Story here... http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/20818

Story below:

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Vets complain of delays, poor service in 'Med Hold'

By MICHAEL GISICK

Injured U.S. service members have become so wary of inpatient treatment programs run by the military that many consider hiding their health problems when they return from war, a group of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans told U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson.

During a roundtable discussion in Albuquerque on Monday, those veterans also said poor record keeping by the military and a "revolving door" of doctors at the veterans hospital were hindering care.

Wilson, a Republican from Albuquerque, said those issues were not news to her.

She said she'd heard many complaints about the military's "medical hold" programs, where veterans often spend a year or more waiting for the government to decide if they can return to active duty or be given a medical retirement.

Those programs have come under an intense spotlight following reports by the Washington Post of major problems at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the Army's flagship hospital in Washington, D.C.

But Trent Simpler, a staff sergeant with the Army Reserves who served in Iraq, said the problems weren't isolated to Walter Reed.

After he suffered a foot injury, Simpler said he was sent to a medical-hold facility at Fort Benning, Georgia.

"They had 100 of us in some buildings that had been slated for demolition," he said, adding that the building he was in lacked basic amenities and TVs.

"They had some people in tents," he said.

Kenny Keelin, who served in Afghanistan with the New Mexico National Guard, said warnings about the programs had filtered back to front-line troops long before they were exposed by the Washington Post.

"We'd get e-mails from people in hold saying the conditions were terrible," he said. "We'd do anything we could to not end up in 'med hold.'"

After she returned from Iraq with a minor injury, Army Reservist Korrie Shivers said she faced the decision of acknowledging the problem and facing a year in medical hold or saying nothing and going home.

"I know a lot of people who were hurt who didn't say anything," she said.

Wilson, an Air Force veteran, said she'd heard the same story from other veterans.

"(It) may be encouraging people not to report health problems," Wilson said.

A number of other issues were also raised during the hour-long roundtable.

About 20 people attended _ half recent veterans and half service providers.

Several of the veterans complained of long waits for appointments at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Albuquerque and said they'd repeatedly been shuffled between doctors.

Donald Norman, an Iraq war veteran, said he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder while on active duty with the Army. But after returning to New Mexico, he said, he went to the local VA hospital and was told he'd have to wait six months for an appointment with a psychiatrist.

Army Staff Sgt. Michael Chamberlain, who suffered knee and back injuries while working with military intelligence in Iraq, said he'd been told older vets were facing even longer waits at the local hospital.

"I don't like people telling me they have to bump back Vietnam and World War II vets to make room for me," he said.

Chamberlain and others also complained about what he called a "revolving door" of doctors.

"You meet with one, and two weeks later you go back and they've left," he said.

The parents of Tyler Wilson, a New Mexico soldier who was partially paralyzed by a gunshot wound in Afghanistan in 2005, said their son had received outstanding care at Walter Reed and blamed the media for blowing the problems there out of proportion.

But, they said, their son nearly died of an overdose on Oxycontin because of an error by a nurse.

"It just seems like they don't have enough help. They're always short-staffed," Joanna Wilson said.

Another of Rep. Wilson's concerns was the quality of care for women veterans, a growing but still small portion of veterans.

"Having to go through a flight physical and being the only woman in line _ I know how they treated me," she said.

The VA is struggling, Wilson said, to move from a system focused on long-term care for older veterans toward one that could respond to the acute problems of younger vets.

"There's a tension being focused on it now," she said. "The system has to start responding."

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Larry Scott  --