This is the VA single payer healthcare system that Obama promised to fix but never did and it will make you angry:
Here’s the full Facebook post from Hanna McMenamin, who captured the photo:
Yesterday (2/24/17) while at the local VA Hospital in NC, my husband Stephen McMenamin and I witnessed some very disturbing events. The two men in the wheelchairs on the left, were waiting in that waiting room at least 3 hours. The man bent over grabbing the chair, was yelling in pain and was borderline convulsing and almost falling out of his chair he was in so much pain. No one paid him any attention until I approached a nurse to please check on him. The gentleman behind him, had seriously injured his shoulder and could barely move. Both of these men sat in the waiting room in extreme pain for hours upon hours with very little attention paid to them.
The gentlemen seen in the two photos on the right, came in extremely sick. He could barely walk, sit up, or breathe. My husband had been directed to a chair just off the waiting area because it reclined (my husband was being seen for extreme lower back pain). Upon this man walking in and telling the nurse he needed to lay down, and her telling him to have a seat (with very little regard for his well being), my husband got up and offered this man the reclining chair. This man sat in the chair for probably about 15 minutes before he was told he had to get up immediately. Upon being approached by the nurse (who was extremely rude to him), he told her he could not sit up and he needed to lay down. She completely disregarded him and demanded he go sit in the waiting room area, leaving the recliner completely empty. Upon seeing this, and seeing how rude the nurse was being, my husband approached the nurse and asked why this man was not allowed to stay in the recliner given that my husband had been sitting in it for 30 plus minutes. The nurse refused to provide any explanation or even her name, and stormed off while this man was suffering. The man then asked multiple times for a place to lean back or lay down, and was completely disregarded by the nurse. Eventually after being completely neglected, he laid on the floor.
The point of this post is to show the issues that exist at the VA. Yesterday at the VA we did encounter some nurses who genuinely cared about the patients, but after seeing what happened, I had to share this. There are good people that work at the VA and genuinely care, but then there are people like this particular nurse who should not be working with our nations finest. We did end up getting the nurses name who was extremely rude and neglected patients in need. And are planning to go through any means to make sure people know what was going on.
Please share this post. Our Veterans deserve better. And the problems in the VA system are very real.
Thank you.
Given how many times this has been shared, I have decided to mark out the Veterans faces since this is reached a lot further than anticipated. Since I have edited the post, please make sure you share the POST and not just the photo.
UPDATE 2/26/17- We just received a call from the Chief Executive Nurse at the VA. He has assured us that they have already started investigating this situation. They began working on this late last night and are continuing to do so. After our phone conversation, we are very satisfied with their response to this situation. However this does not change the fact that we as Americans need to push for better healthcare for our Veterans. Thank you everyone for sharing this post! Everyone that has shown concern for this issue is part of the group of people that makes America great.
UPDATE 2/27/17- The VA is very unhappy that we have posted this photo and it has been seen around the country. They have asked us again to remove this photo, claiming on of the participants does not want this posted. They claim to have told him his face is blocked out. I am not sure that they actually told him that, and I am sure they did not mention he is not identifiable. Due to potential legal concerns, John Burk has volunteered to take over from here and to continue getting the message out. Please like his Facebook page, I will link it below. Thank you to everyone for sharing, let’s keep on going with trying to make the changes that need to be made.
This is something that Trump should make an announcement on, declaring that he and his administration will absolutely not tolerate this. Because what we see here is scandalous, and the sad thing is probably very common.
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Comments:
This photo needs to be blown up and posted far and wide with the caption:
GOVERNMENT-RUN HEALTH CARE
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Why is the VA run like the DMV, IRS and every other government bureacracy? Because it's a government bureaucracy immune from competition. Give the vets vouchers for health insurance or healthcare and the problem is solved overnight.
Are the VA employees that powerful a lobby?
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AFAIC there is very little and I mean very little the VA does for our heros that a civilian hospital cannot do. I agree it should be disbanded and any military member or anyone holding the appropriate DD Form should be able to walk into any hospital to get the help they need.
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Even before the stuff runs out, the incentives in a bureaucratic, government agency tend to push one toward apathy. The incentives are just very different in the government. To a for profit doctor, every patient is profit. Even if he is not particularly happy that day, even if he is grouchy, he will force a bit of politeness as it means money. On the other hand, in the gov't office every patient means more costs. Thus, they are unwelcome at best. And the worse their condition, the more they will cost, making it your greatest desire to minimize the care they receive and get them out fast, or better yet, leave them waiting and hope they go away. Without profit, the incentives are simply messed up.
NOTE: I do not mean to imply people act simply out of monetary interest, but in government agencies, the monetary incentives simply work against any sort of compassion, while profit making enterprises push in the opposite direction. And after a while, with managers yelling at you for running up costs by providing care, people do stop caring.
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I recall recruiting ads for medical personnel run by the VA in which the selling points were not having to meet state licensing requirements and the fewer hassles with medical malpractice claims. I found this odd. Buy then when I consider the problems the VA probably has in recruiting doctors for those medical centers that politics located in small cities, it doesn't surprise me.
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