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Outrage After 700 Local Veterans Kept On Waiting List, Shinseki Resigns

PITTSBURGH (KDKA/AP) - The nationwide scandal involving a waiting list at VA hospitals has now touched Pittsburgh.

U.S. Reps. Tim Murphy, a Republican, and Mike Doyle, a Democrat, are criticizing the Veterans Affairs Pittsburgh Healthcare System for keeping nearly 700 veterans on a list for medical care, some for more than a year.

The two congressmen issued a statement Thursday night calling on the VA to contact every veteran on the list within 48 hours. And, Friday morning, in response to growing outcry across the country, President Barack Obama announced that Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki has resigned due to the scandal.

As for the local VA problems, one veteran says he believes he's on those reported wait lists.

When Army veteran Mike Jones dials his VA healthcare line, he realizes he's had no appointments since February of last year.

He's had a hip replacement, and believes he's on a waiting list.

"I thought I was on the waiting list so long because of the influx of the troops coming back from Afghanistan and people that served already," says Jones. "They push them to the back of the line to give this guy a prosthetic limb, what have you. And I understand that, but I still need to be seen as a veteran in the United States military."

Local congressmen learned as many as 700 vets are on a list at the Pittsburgh VA, so Friday's shake up in Washington was inevitable in their eyes.

"It's a step in the right direction," says U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle. "General Shinseki is an honorable man. He served his country. I think he thought the best thing he could do for veterans was to step aside and to let this process move forward. The focal point needs to be the veterans. Not one person."

"It's time for change," says Jones. "It's time to get somebody in there that's not going to be a distraction like the president said."

Late this afternoon, U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy revealed investigators have traced the local problem.

"The latest is that this list of 700 names that was on this appointment list has been traced to one person who was not processing these appointments, and apparently, the supervisors of this person were also not keeping an eye on this," says Rep. Murphy.

Congressman Murphy also spoke with KDKA Radio's Mike Pintek a short time after President Obama announced that Shinseki had resigned. Murphy says the resignation showed Shinseki was taking personal responsibility for the growing list of problems at VA health centers around the country.

"He was at the top, he takes responsibility for it but all the way through, all the people, there's a lot of cleaning up to do," said Congressman Murphy. "At multiple sites, at multiple hospitals around the nation."

Congressman Tim Murphy

The Congressman says it's clear there were people around the country under Secretary Shinseki that were not doing their jobs. He adds that there needs to be a system-wide housecleaning to eliminate mismanagement, or worse.

"Well, I think it was important for his personal accountability, but however, there's a long way to go here," said Congressman Murphy. "I don't want him to the scape goat that everybody leaves it at that and walks away."

Congressman Tim Murphy

Meanwhile, President Obama said he accepted Shinseki's, a retired four-star general, resignation "with considerable regret" during an Oval Office meeting. Shinseki had been facing mounting calls to step down from lawmakers in both parties since a scathing internal report out Wednesday found broad and deep-seated problems in the sprawling health care system, which provides medical care to about 6.5 million veterans annually.

Obama said Shinseki had served with honor, but the secretary told him the agency needs new leadership and he doesn't want to be a distraction.

"I agree. We don't have time for distractions. We need to fix the problem," Obama said.

The president named Sloan D. Gibson, currently the deputy VA secretary, to run the department on an interim basis while he searches for another secretary.

A career banker, Gibson has held the No. 2 post at the department since February of this year. He came to the department after serving as president and chief executive officer of the USO, a nonprofit organization that provides programs and services to U.S. troops and their families, and after a 20-year career in banking.

Gibson is the son of an Army Air Corpsman who served in World War II and grandson of a World War I Army Infantryman.

In a speech earlier Friday to a veterans group, Shinseki said the problems outlined in the report were "totally unacceptable" and a "breach of trust" that he found indefensible. He announced he would take a series of steps to respond, including ousting senior officials at the troubled Phoenix health care facility, the initial focus of the investigation.

He concurred with the report's conclusion that the problems extended throughout the VA's 1,700 health care facilities nationwide, and said that "I was too trusting of some" in the VA system.

The VA has a goal of trying to give patients an appointment within 14 days of when they first seek care. Treatment delays - and irregularities in recording patient waiting times - have been documented in numerous reports from government and outside organizations for years and have been well-known to VA officials, member of Congress and veteran service organizations.

But the controversy now swirling around the VA stems from allegations that employees were keeping a secret waiting list at the Phoenix hospital - and that up to 40 patients may have died while awaiting care. A preliminary VA inspector general probe into the allegations found systemic falsification of appointment records at Phoenix and other locations but has not made a determination on whether any deaths are related to the delays.

The agency has been struggling to keep up with a huge demand for its services - some 9 million enrolled now compared to 8 million in 2008. The influx comes from returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, aging Vietnam War vets who now have more health problems, a move by Congress to expand the number of those eligible for care and the migration of veterans to the VA during the last recession after they lost their jobs or switched to the VA when their private insurance became more expensive.

Shinseki said the last several weeks have been "challenging" but that his agency takes caring for veterans seriously.

"I can't explain the lack of integrity," he told a homeless veterans group. "I will not defend it, because it is not defensible." The beleaguered Cabinet official received a standing ovation and loud applause.

An inspector general's report found that about 1,700 veterans in need of care were "at risk of being lost or forgotten" after being kept off an official waiting list.

The report confirmed earlier allegations of excessive waiting times for care in Phoenix, with an average 115-day wait for a first appointment for those on the waiting list - nearly five times as long as the 24-day average the hospital had reported.

"This situation can be fixed," Shinseki told an audience of several hundred people from around the nation who have been working with the VA on helping homeless veterans. "Leadership and integrity problems can and must be fixed - and now."

He said the government would not give any performance bonuses this year, would use all authorities it has against those "who instigated or tolerated" the falsification of wait time records and that performance on achieving wait time targets will no longer be considered in employee job reviews. He also asked Congress to support a bill by Rep. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., which would give the department more authority to remove senior government employees who are in leadership positions.

The House has passed a similar bill that would give the VA more ability to fire up to 450 senior executives at the agency.

Those attending Shinseki's speech in a downtown Washington hotel were overwhelmingly friendly, supportive because of his work in sharply decreasing homelessness among veterans. Shinseki at one point noted that the number of homeless veterans has fallen by nearly 25 percent since 2013. The audience gave him a long, standing ovation, whistling and hooting, when he entered the room and again before and after he spoke.

"He has made a difference. I'm living it," said James Wheatley, a 20-year veteran of the Army who now works at mental health facility that helps veterans in Indianapolis, In.

"He's a good man," said Steven Nelson, a veteran who works at an employment center in Tuscon, Arizona. "When I go to the VA (for health "He's a good man," said Steven Nelson, a veteran who works at an employment center in Tuscon, Arizona. "When I go to the VA (for health care), I'm well taken care of and everybody I know is.care), I'm well taken care of and everybody I know is."

RELATED LINKS:
More Reports on the Pittsburgh VA
More Reports by Harold Hayes

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(TM and © Copyright 2014 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2014 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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