“The Department of Veterans Affairs is working to better serve the veterans we have the privilege of serving”.
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ROBERT MCDONALD, Veterans Affairs Secretary: What really counts is, how does the veteran feel about their encounter with the VA?
Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald recently compared wait times at VA hospitals to those of Disney theme parks. McDonald said. “What’s important is your satisfaction with the experience, and what I would like to move to eventually is that kind of measure”.
I can assure you that wait times at Disney, Home Depot and other major private sector businesses are important performance measures, as were New York City’s crime data in the streets and violence in the city’s jails.
Roy Blunt calling for Mr. McDonald’s resignation, just two years after his predecessor was forced out over the agency’s incompetence. “Secretary McDonald’s recent comments make clear that he is not the man to ensure that happens, and as a result, he should resign”. He later issued a statement saying, “If my comments Monday led any veterans to believe that I, or the dedicated workforce I am privileged to lead, don’t take that noble mission seriously, I deeply regret that”. “Nothing could be further from the truth”, he said in a statement, according to Stars and Stripes.
McDonald’s remarks amount to a white flag of surrender on veterans care at the VA. After years of increasing concern and anger at long wait times and unresponsive bureaucracy at the VA, McDonald wants everyone to just shrug it off. Rather than fix the problem, McDonald wants to stop measuring the failures, leaving veterans locked into a system it takes weeks and months to even access.
Those comments quickly fired up critics of the VA. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, was on Twitter within hours chastising McDonald’s comparison.
But outdated technology, long wait times and poor customer service are common problems in government-controlled health-care systems, like the VA and like some European countries with socialized medicine.
The Disney organization also responded to McDonald’s comments.
Sen. Ted Cruz, back today from a post-campaign vacation, joined a growing chorus of Republicans demanding the ouster of the Veterans Affairs chief who compared wait times for medical attention to lines at Disneyland. “When you go to Disneyland, you aren’t wondering if you are going to live long enough to make it to Space Mountain”, she said.
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, who is known for his own verbal miscues, supported McDonald. “So I support Secretary McDonald all the way”.
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The VA hospitals and clinics have been under scrutiny since 2014, when it was alleged that up to 40 patients may have died while waiting for appointments.
