The Department of Veterans Affairs is making no progress on helping sick veterans get better care following the VA health care scandals that had some waiting months for care, Rep. Dan Benishek, chairman of the Subcommittee on Veterans Health, tells
Newsmax TV.
"It's not the people who are taking care of the patient. It's not the doctors and the nurses who are helping our veterans, Benishek, a former VA physician himself, told "Newsmax Prime."
"It's the bureaucracy, it's the way things are done," he said, "It's the lack of access to specialists and the care that they provide."
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Primary care physicians have been prescribing chronic pain medications rather than sending vets to pain specialists or alternative treatments, he said, "rather than just somebody putting somebody on narcotics and then forgetting about them."
Members of the Obama administration keep telling Congress that the VA is doing better, Benishek said, but added that the claims don't sound credible amid constant reports of people being overdosed.
The congressman said he was initially impressed with current VA Secretary Robert McDonald, but said he has since seen no dramatic changes to the agency.
"Frankly, I'm very disappointed in what's been going on in the past year with the new secretary," Benishek said.
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