Few people in Alabama have or will make sacrifices as large as the ones our veterans have made in sacrifice to our country. At the very least, veterans gave their time, body and mind to our country in hopes of making it a better place for us all. At the most, they sacrifice their health or even their lives in service to our country. They deserve our utmost respect and admiration.
That’s why it is such an outrage to hear about negligence or abuse on behalf of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. A change in federal legislation has now made it easier to reprimand employees of the VA who are alleged to have committed misconduct against veterans in their care. Also, a change in whistleblower legislation for those that report the misconduct gives those who speak up more protection against backlash from the VA itself. This should help to reduce or eliminate the veterans’ issues and misconducts that many veterans have alleged as happening at the VA.
In addition, the VA, who cares for millions of veterans across 50 states, will be modernizing the patient healthcare system which will now be on par with the one used by the Department of Defense. This change will better serve the millions of veterans under care of the VA by updated the system in which patients are tracked and treated. This should help to remedy the long waits and failure to treat veterans which has caught significant media attention over the last several years. Funding was approved by Congress to make these improvements to the VA and it should positively affect veterans everywhere, including right here in Alabama.
Most workers at the VA do an outstanding job caring for their veteran patients. However, the small percentage of negligent workers will now be more swiftly dealt with. Also, the way in which veterans are cared for is being upgraded to a modern system of tracking patients which will get every veteran a better level of care. No one deserves better care than our veterans.
Source: montgomeryadvisor.com, “Roby: Policy change is good news for veterans,” Martha Roby, June 28, 2017