The latest report from the Veterans Affairs Office of the Inspector General says VA medical centers, including the Charlie Norwood center in Augusta, are facing critical staffing shortages while continuing to both lose and recruit fewer workers.
Systemwide, the VA had around 467,000 employees as of June 1, down by 17,000 since January, according to a statement. The system was “on pace” to reduce total staff by 30,000 for FY 25, which ends Sept. 30, it said.
The severity of staffing shortages doesn’t refer to vacant positions but the difficulty in filling positions based on the availability of candidates, the desirability of the job and location and other factors.
The OIG report published Tuesday compared 2025 data as of April 9 with reports from 2018-2024 and found a nationwide increase in severe staffing shortages of 50%.
MORE: Augusta suspends distribution of rental assistance
The report found that all of the nation’s 139 VA facilities reported severe occupational staffing shortages, for 2025 a total of 4,434, up from 2,959 in 2024. Ninety-four percent reported severe shortages of medical officers while 79% reported severe nursing shortages.
Augusta was on the low end with 12 occupations experiencing severe shortages.
Among them were clinical positions such as physician shortages in psychiatry, radiology and family practice, nurse positions such as staff inpatient RN and spinal cord nurse as well as psychology, practical nurse, radiologic technologist and dental assistant. Among nonclinical occupations, severe shortages existed in police, supply clerical, inventory and custodial roles.
Augusta’s severe shortages were far fewer than the Long Beach, Calif. VA, which had the highest number of severe shortages with 153. Statewide, VA Atlanta Healthcare System had 79 severe shortages and the Dublin system had 18.
The shortages come amid a backdrop of the Trump administration’s efforts to slash the federal workforce and decision last week to terminate all VA union contracts, which affected some 377,000 employees.
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins said unions “fight against the best interests of veterans while protecting and rewarding bad workers.” A quarter of VA employees are veterans themselves.
The Norwood facilities, meanwhile, have been the subject of other scathing OIG reports. One cited a “toxic” workplace and supply chain failures. The medical center went through three directors in three months that concluded in July.
The office of U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff called attention to the new OIG report. He noted it does not fully capture the workforce reductions because many VA staffers accepted buyouts after the surveys were completed.
MORE: Contract for PAC Support Facility construction moved to full board of commissioners
Augusta VA RN Irma Westmoreland said hiring freezes have been ongoing while the positions of employees lost through attrition are not being filled. Nurses who remain are being moved out of their specialties to other areas. But remaining staff who are not nurses can’t stand in for missing nurses, she said.
“I don’t care how far you stretch them, they can’t do the work,” she said. “You can’t replace nursing care with anybody. It has to be a nurse.”
The resulting short-staffed VA exudes “chaos” and is even less attractive to potential employees, she said.
Westmoreland is VA chair for National Nurses United, a nurses union that represents most VA nurses. At a recent event in Augusta, NNU rallied against the privatization of VA services, an administration goal achieved by reducing services which forces veterans to seek medical care in the private sector.
Westmoreland said union contracts protect patient safety by ensuring standards exist to maintain staffing levels and hold employees accountable. The administration’s act last week was retaliation for speaking out against policies that hurt veterans and the public, she said.
“Union busting, but you know what? Our nurses see through it,” she said.
