Veterans ‘hospitals are fighting for the replacement of hundreds of doctors and nurses who have left the health care system this year when Trump administration pursues its promise to reduce veterans’ and improve assistance at the same time.
Many applicants reject the proposals, experiencing that positions are not stable and difficult in the general direction of the agency, according to the internal documents that have studied the propublica. The records show almost 4 out of 10 of the 2000 doctors who offered jobs from January to March this year. This is a four -storey speed of doctors over the same period last year.
In March, VA said it intends to reduce its labor by at least 70,000 people. The news caused anxiety that the reductions would damage the care of patients, which caused public assurances from the VA secretary Collins, that health care staff would be insured against the proposed dismissal.
Last month, the department officials updated their plans and stated that by the end of the financial year they reduced the labor to 30,000, which will be on September 30. So many employees have left voluntarily, reports the agency in the press release that mass dismissals would not be needed.
“VA is sent in the right direction”, Collins said in a statement.
But the review of hundreds of internal personnel records, as well as interviews with veterans and staff, shows a much less pink picture of how the staffing schedule affects the care of veterans.
After six years of adding medical staff, more than 600 doctors and about 1900 nurses decreased this year. The number of doctors in the staff declined every month as President Donald Trump took over. The agency also lost twice the nurses than hired in January and June, the records, viewed by Propublica Show.
In response to questions, the VA spokesman did not dispute the numbers about staff losses across the country, but accused Prapublica of prejudice and “in” cherry issues that are mostly common. “
Agency’s press -secretary Peter Kasrovich said the department was “working to resolve” the number of doctors who reduce job offers, accelerating the hiring process and that the agency “has several shortcomings strategies”, including veterans to private providers and appointments in the field of health care. He said that the nationwide shortage of healthcare providers was hiring and maintenance, he said.
Kasrovich said recent changes in the agency do not violate help, and waiting time becomes better after the deterioration of President Joe Biden.
While waiting for primary, mental health and specialized care for existing patients increased during Biden’s presidency, VA statistics show only a slight reduction after Trump took office in January.
However, the expectation of meeting new patients seeking primary and special assistance has increased slightly, according to a report received by Propublica.
As of the beginning of July, the average waiting time on the national plan to schedule meetings with an outpatient operation for new patients was 41 days, which is 13 days higher than the goal, and almost two days ago.
In some places, waiting for meetings is even longer.
At the Togus VA medical center in Augustus, Maine, internal records indicate that there is a two -month waiting primary care that three times on the VA target and 38 days longer than at this time last year. The wife of a disabled veteran of the Marines, which provides assistance in the facility, said Propublica that it has become more difficult to schedule meetings in recent months and take care in time.
Her husband, she said, served in Somalia and completely disabled. He did not have a primary care doctor prescribed to him within a few months after his previous doctor left the winter, she said.
“He does not have a person who is responsible for his medical care,” said a woman who did not want to be called out of fear that her comments can affect her husband’s benefit. “It has never been like this before. There are not enough staff, blank rooms. It feels like something healthy.”
Kasrovich said that VA takes “aggressive actions” for the recruitment of primary care doctors in Maine and expected to hire two new doctors by the end of the year.
Overall the country, considered by PROPBLICA SHOW, the vacancy level for doctors in VA amounted to 13.7% in May, which is compared to 12% in May 2024. Kasrovich stated that these rates correspond to the historical average for the agency. But while the vacation level decreased in the first five months of 2024, it increased in 2025.
Senator Richard Blumenthal, Georgia, who was critical of Colinz management, claimed that VA was heading in a new dangerous direction. He said the propublica conclusions amplified his concern about the “devastating and dangerous consequences” from the reduction and reduction of the personnel schedule.
“The allocated specialists run away – and a set of recruits – from the toxic working conditions and reduction of draconian financing and shooting,” he said propublica. “We have repeatedly warned of these results – shocking, but not surprising.”
In the Texas region, VA, which covers most of the state, reported in the domestic presentation that in June, about 90 people abandoned the job offers “because of the uncertainty of the reorganization” and noted that the low moral spirit makes the existing employees not recommend working in medical centers.
Anthony Martinez, the retired army captain who was serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, said he witnessed a help in the temple, Texas, Washington. He said he had lost his recent allergies’ records in the hospital, and he would have to wait more meetings.
“There have always been problems, but not to this extent,” Martinez said.
Martinez, who manages a local non -profit organization for veterans, said he had heard similar disappointments from many. “It’s not only me. Many veterinarians have a bad experience,” he said.
Kasrovich said the agency could not discuss Martinez’s case without refusing the patients who refused to sign. He said the time of waiting for primary care for existing patients in the temple does not change over the past fiscal year. But internal records show an increase in the expectation of new patients in specialties such as cardiology, gastroenterology and oncology.
The administrators there expressed concern about the impact of staff losses, warning in June an internal presentation about “institutional knowledge leaving the agency with the increase in the guards”.
It is not only the loss of doctors and nurses who affect the help. Deficiency of support staff who have not been protected from the reduction is also added for delay.
In Daitan, Ohio, vacancies for purchasing agents have led to delay in the purchase of hundreds of prosthetics, VA’s internal report said. Kasrovich said that the hospital recently reduced the processing time of such orders.
Some objects experience problems with hiring and mental health staff.
In February, an official of human resources in the VA region, which covers most of the Florida, said in the internal warning system that there are problems with the admission of mental health specialists to treat patients in rural areas. Workplaces were previously remote, but now demanding suppliers is in place in the clinic.
When the region offered the work of three mental health suppliers, they all refused. The expected influence, according to the warning document, was a longer delay for meetings. Kasrovich said VA was working on a shortage.
But even when the agency faces these problems, the Trump administration has dramatically scale the use of a key instrument designed to help the applicants and connect the blanks in critical assistance.
In recent years, VA has used stimulating payments to help recruit and support physicians and other healthcare providers. In the financial 2024, the agency paid almost 20,000 bonus detention staff, and more than 6,000 new hired bonuses were signed. In the first nine months of this financial year, which began on October 1, only about 8,000 VA employees received bonuses for the maintenance and a little over 1000 received a recruitment. VA told the legislators that she was able to fill the jobs without using stimulating programs.
Res. Delia Ramirez, D-Min.
“The point is not that VA employees are less deserved than they were in Biden,” she said. “They want each employee to be pulled so that they can destroy the VA work force.”
Do you have information about the VA we need to know about? Contact David Armstrong journalists by signal, davidarmstrong.55, or email, (e -mail is protected); Eric Umansky on the signal, Ericumansky.04Either e -mail, (e -mail is protected); and Vernal Coleman on Signal, Vcoleman91.99, or e -mail, (e -mail is protected).
Joel Jacobs contributed to the report.
