Area VA nurses, veterans and union members will rally Thursday in defense of the federal healthcare system and workforce they say is under siege.
The current administration’s policies “threaten the very existence of the VA,” Irma Westmoreland, chair of National Nurses United’s VA division, said in a statement.
“There is a group of rich and powerful people in Washington, D.C. who want to pour billions of taxpayer dollars into giant healthcare corporations and the pockets of billionaires instead of into the care of those who served our country,” Westmoreland said.
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins recently scaled back plans to fire some 82,000 VA workers, decreasing the number to around 30,000.
The Augusta VA health system, which serves approximately 50,000 veteran patients, had already been dealing with staffing and leadership issues. A scathing VA Inspector General report released in May depicted a toxic workplace where numerous vacant primary care positions remain unfilled.
The Augusta network marked three directors in three months when acting deputy director Lovetta Ford was named acting medical center director in June. Collins testified to a senate committee the VA is “looking for permanent” leadership for the system’s two hospitals and outpatient clinics.
“The VA Augusta Healthcare Network has struggled with short staffing for many years; this is not a secret,” said Becky Halioua, president of the American Federation of Government Employees local 217. “The best way to improve veteran care is to increase staffing and provide VA employees with the resources they need.”
The objective is not “to send veterans into a private sector health care system that does not understand their unique needs,” Halioua said.
Some 82% of VA facilities have severe nursing staff shortages, while the number of veterans seeking care from the VA is rising “exponentially,” the statement said.
At the same time, VA spending on private-sector care continues to rise, and the cost of that private care “threatens to materially erode the VA’s direct-care system,” it said. Veterans who prefer to use the direct-care system will lose that choice.
Nurses with NNU and the National Nurses Organizing Committee will be joined by members of the federal employees’ union, the Georgia AFL-CIO, the Augusta Central Labor Council, area veterans and supporters at a town hall meeting Thursday.
The event is being held from 6-8 p.m. at Transforming Lives Bible Church, 2439 Peach Orchard Road. It will feature speakers from across the organizations as well as area veterans who receive care at the VA.
The town hall is about more than budget cuts, said Ed Anderson, an Air Force veteran and lead organizer for Common Defense, a veteran support organization based in Georgia.
“It’s about every one of us who served and every VA staffer, many of whom are veterans, who will lose their livelihoods,” Anderson said. “I look forward to the work ahead as we fight to protect our VA, the veteran patients that rely on it, and the workers who keep it running.”
The town hall will be livestreamed on National Nurses United’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/nationalnurses/live_videos
