We’ve heard a lot of horror stories about the VA in recent years. But what an Army veteran in Wilmington, North Carolina had to endure has to be one of the worst. Rather than help him get badly-needed referrals, his doctor suggested going on social media to help find the treatment he needed.
Dan Morgan retired in 2011 after a 29-year career in the Army. For some time, he’s had to deal with hip pain. He asked his primary care physician at the Wilmington VA Health Care Center for a referral to see a specialist last year. That referral still hasn’t arrived. It took him four months to get the results from his initial primary care evaluation; his PCP told him that he has had to do “an amazing amount of keyboard data entry work” that would normally be done by a secretary or physician’s assistant.
That may be understandable. It’s no secret that the VA is understaffed. Additionally, the Wilmington clinic has only recently returned to full operations after being shut down in March 2015 due to water contamination. But Morgan told WECT in Wilmington that his PCP made two suggestions for which there is no good-faith explanation. Watch here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N6FUlAVoi8
Morgan says his PCP told him to look for physical therapy exercises on YouTube to help relieve his hip pain. Morgan also needed to replace his glasses, so his PCP suggested going on Google to search for “cheap Chinese glasses.” That search would take him to a Website where he could enter his measurements for new frames.
Even allowing for the massive backlog in appointments, this is simply inexcusable. Rather than offer to help a veteran who needs care, this “doctor” suggests going to Google and YouTube? The mind reels. If I found out a VA doctor said that to my uncles who fought in Vietnam–well, let’s just say there would be a problem. A big problem.
The Wilmington VA Clinic is notorious in the area’s veteran community for poor service, so Morgan was already concerned about the clinic’s standard of care. But this was the last straw, so he decided to get another PCP. But in order to do that, he needed approval from his PCP. However, the PCP never signed the form. When Morgan lost patience and tried to transfer to the Fayetteville VA Clinic, they told him that he needed to get a transfer form. When Morgan said he had done so, he was told that there was nothing more that could be done.
Morgan has since learned that his PCP is transferring to another field of medicine, so he’s getting a new PCP by default. However, he feels for veterans who have far more debilitating problems than he faces. He knows one thing–the thought of having to go to this clinic for a really serious issue “terrifies” him.
This situation should terrify any fair-minded person, not just a veteran or someone who is related to a veteran. To put it mildly, this doctor has some explaining to do. And the Wilmington clinic needs to be cleaned out root and branch.
