Obama says feds ‘chipping away’ at Veterans Affairs’ problems

President Obama, traveling to where persistent delays in veterans’ medical care were first revealed, insisted that his administration is “chipping away at those problems.”

Obama visited the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Phoenix, Ariz. Friday, where whistleblowers exposed phony waiting lists and systematic delays in care that contributed to the deaths of veterans.

The scandal caused the exit of then-VA Secretary Eric Shinseki and prompted questions about the president’s management skills.

Obama’s trip Friday was meant to illustrate reforms and appease critics who suggest his administration isn’t moving fast enough to overhaul the beleaguered Department of Veterans Affairs.

“We all know that there have been significant problems at this facility, that the kind of cooking the books and the unwillingness to face up to the fact … went on too long,” he said at a roundtable with veterans and lawmakers.

“We’ve brought in a new team that has been tackling these issues to make sure that wait times for scheduling, access to providers is greatly improved, but what we know is there is still more work to do.”

Obama announced the creation of an advisory committee made up private, nonprofit and government officials to study how to deliver better care to veterans.

However, whistleblowers say the biggest problem plaguing the department is that employees are often punished for revealing problems at VA hospitals.

Until that changes, they argue, veterans won’t get the care they deserve.

Obama, though, sought to distinguish between a “few bad apples” and the rest of the VA employees.

“Trust is one of those things that you lose real quick and then it takes some time to build,” he said. “The good news is that there are outstanding folks here at this VA and all the VAs across the country who are deserving of trust.”

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