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Vets' Notes

By VVAW

Cutting Thru Red Tape Making Sense of Regs

Dr. Donald Curtis, the VA's head of medicine, resigned at the end of April for "personal reasons." A replacement will be named by the head of the VA and must be approved by the Veterans Affairs committees of the House and Senate.

The VA hospital system is a sprawling entity with a budget larger than many country's. Half of the nation's doctors received some kind of training at VA facilities. Under Curtis some of the criticism of the VA hospital system has lessened.

While there has yet been no clear connection between the resignation and various attacks presently directly at the VA budget and future, Curtis has been among those beginning to talk about the situation of the VA years down the line when more and more veterans grow older. With the increasing cost of private healthcare, VA experts see a flood of older patients at the VA as World War II vets grow older and less healthy.

The response from the Reagan Administration and its various functionaries has been to propose and end to treatment of non-service connected disabilities and through the Grace Commission, a proposal to end the VA hospital system altogether. The approached are typical of an Administration which seems to hope that the poor—whether old or young, Black or white—will disappear and let the rich and powerful continue on their way, no longer to be bothered by those who don't mean anything anyhow!

VA NEGLECT SUICIDES

According to a VA Circular, uncovered by a reporter for the Army Times, a total of 58 patients at VA hospitals jumped from unsecured windows and roofs in the 18 months between January 1982 and July 1983. This happened despite several VA directives, in 1976 and in 1981, to medical facilities telling them to close off windows and roofs to prevent patients from falling or jumping.

OSHA, in the fall of 1983, strongly criticized the VA overall for its program of fire prevention and safety efforts. Top management seemed to care little, according to OSHA. Perhaps like many bureaucracies, the VA is waiting for a major tragedy before it begins to clean up its act.

In at least one VA hospital, effort was made to secure windows only after an employee committed suicide by jumping through an open bathroom window.

While the VA does not give a figure for the number of suicide attempts which were successful, a spokesman did say the figure is around 80%.