Thomas Breen, a Navy veteran, was reportedly denied medical coverage at a Phoenix veteran’s hospital and died, which has prompted questions about the system.
Dr. Sam Foote, who spent 24 years with the VA Health System in Arizona, told CNN that the VA wasn’t providing timely appointments, but it said it did.
“The only record that you have ever been there requesting care was on that secret list,” Foote said. “And they wouldn’t take you off that secret list until you had an appointment time that was less than 14 days so it would give the appearance that they were improving greatly the waiting times, when in reality it had been six, nine, in some cases 21 months”
Breen “started bleeding in his urine,” family member Teddy Barnes-Breen told the network. “So I was like, ‘listen, we gotta get you to the doctor. We gotta get you to the doctor.'”
He was taken to the Phoenix VA emergency room, where he was examined and taken home to wait. “All they wrote on his chart was ‘must see, must have primary doctor in one week,” Barnes-Breen said. “Urgent. And they sent him home.”
A family member kept calling for him from September to November. However, Thomas Breen died on Nov. 30, 2013 due to bladder cancer.
Breen, according to CNN, was one of many veterans who died. As many as 40 veterans died while waiting for care.
It was described as an “elaborate scheme” designed to hide that between 1,400 and 1,600 sick veterans waited months to see a doctor. The secret list, as it was called, also gave the appearance of a shorter appointment wait.
The Phoenix VA Health Care System issued a statement about the story, saying that it would “welcome the results from the Office of Inspector General’s review.”
It adds: “We acknowledge Phoenix VA Health Care System has had longstanding issues with Veterans accessing care and have taken numerous actions to meet demand, while we continue to serve more Veterans and enhance our services.”
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