Report rips operations at VA’s Phoenix hospital

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Veterans Affairs' internal watchdog says veterans at the Phoenix VA hospital waited on average 115 days for their first medical appointment. That's 91 days, on average, longer than the hospital had reported.

An interim report says investigators have "substantiated serious conditions" at the hospital, including 1,700 veterans who were waiting for an medical care but were not on an official waiting list.

The scathing report by the VA Office of Inspector General released Wednesday increased pressure on VA Secretary

 Eric Shinseki to resign. The inspector general is investigating 26 VA facilities nationwide, including the Phoenix hospital. The review follows allegations that several veterans died while awaiting treatment and that secret waiting lists were created to hide delays in care.

"While our work is not complete, we have substantiated that significant delays in access to care negatively impacted the quality of care at this medical facility," Richard J. Griffin, the department's acting inspector general, wrote in the 35-page report. It found that "inappropriate scheduling practices are systemic throughout" some 1,700 VA health facilities nationwide, including 150 hospitals and more than 800 clinics.

Griffin said 42 centers are now under investigation.

"What makes me angry is the fact that there are a lot of veterans who couldn't afford to do what I did, and it would have been too late for them," said Senft, who was wounded during the Vietnam War. "It's just a disappointment when you serve your country and you expect to get good medical care — and you just don't."

Several Republican lawmakers and a handful of Democrats have called for Shinseki's resignation. Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., also have called for criminal probes.