Software won’t VA woes

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers suggests that commercially available software to correct the scheduling system woes at the Veterans Administration Hospital is all that is necessary to solve slow response times. Her solution is ludicrously incomplete.

The best digital appointment system can do nothing about the VA’s inability to attract otherwise highly compensated specialists away from corporate health care systems. The VA is underfunded. It cannot meet the expectations of the public, and it cannot meet those of the politicians who use video talking points to attack it when it cannot afford the professional staff to meet those expectations.

McMorris Rodgers says it is not about money. I submit to her that money is a very large part of the problem. The VA cannot schedule its way out of professional staffing shortages. I wait a week at most for an appointment with my primary care doctor. But I’ve waited over a month for a dermatologist because she is the only one serving 30,000 veterans.

With adequate staffing, scheduling becomes much less of a problem. If we truly want progress at the VA, support Sen. Patty Murray.

Barry Kathrens

Spokane