TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — In an atmosphere of Federal budget cuts, veterans are afraid their medical care is on the chopping block. In a visit to Tucson, the head of the VA is trying to convince veterans their care has not been cut and will not be.
“I was a real tough case. My doctor said, if it could go wrong, it went wrong.”
Cliff Wade says when his appendix burst he spent three months in the Tucson VA Hospital.
He says he got great care from great medical professionals but there wasn’t enough of them. He says that’s not new. They’ve been short staffed for a long time.
He says he doesn’t know of any VA cuts but he could feel the fear in the people who cared for him.
“They're hearing that there's going to be some cuts. They're all having to fill out the form for Elon Musk that says, What did you do last week? So they can keep their jobs.”
There have been several demonstration outside Tucson’s VA Hospital from veterans and their supporters urging the administration not to make cuts in the VA system.
VA Secretary Doug Collins came to the Tucson VA saying he has no plans to cut anything that could affect patient care.
“I'm not getting rid of any doctors and therapists, so that takes that question off the table immediately. If they happen to leave, then they're leaving on their own accord, and not because they're taking early retirement or anything else, because we're not allowing them to take that.”
Secretary Collins did say he may make cuts to other areas he sees as unrelated to medical care for vets.
Congressman Juan Ciscomani was with the Secretary as they met with patients, hospital leaders and Ciscomani’s Veterans Council.
Later Ciscomani met with Chris Thomas, a veteran grateful for Ciscomani’s help with veterans issues. The Congressman says talking about cuts is scaring veterans needlessly. He says he’ll do what he can to protect medical care as Congrerss considers the VA budget.
“The strongest message that we could walk away from for our veterans is that they know that no doctor is being fired, no nurse is being fired, their services on the health area that they're critically depending on, are being protected, and not only protected, but we're actually hiring more people in those areas.”
Besides his Army service, Cliff Wade has experience working with the government through programs to help veterans. So we asked his take on the VA Secretary’s promise.
KGUN Reporter Craig Smith asked: “When he keeps saying, ‘Don't worry about cuts. Quit scaring my vets.’ You believe him?”
Cliff Wade paused and said, “I don't think I do, for the simple reason is, everything else is getting cut.”
——-
Craig Smith is a reporter for KGUN 9. With more than 40 years of reporting in cities like Tampa, Houston and Austin, Craig has covered more than 40 Space Shuttle launches and covered historic hurricanes like Katrina, Ivan, Andrew and Hugo. Share your story ideas and important issues with Craig by emailing craig.smith@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook and Twitter.
