Veterans Forced to Wait a Long Time for Appointments at Superior VA Clinic

SUPERIOR, Wisc.– Erick Hudson is the Douglas County Veteran’s Service Officer. He says he has heard from many veterans who have not been able to get an appointment to see their doctor, at the Superior VA Clinic for sometimes up to a year.

“So for about the last year we’ve had issues with a lot of veterans being able to see their primary care doctor,” said Erick Hudson. “I know a lot of veterans who’ve waited sometimes a year to get in to see their primary doctor.”

Getting in to see their doctor is often not the only problem veterans face. Veteran Dale Ceryes said, “It takes a while, this one I had to get everything done at one time. Had three appointments, got one of two. They don’t tell me when my doctor is out. She’s been out about a year. So, it’s about a year since I’ve been here.”

According to Hudson, it appears that doctors moving on from the clinic has been the main cause of the delays.

Those delays cannot only potentially damage the veteran’s health but, in some cases, it can cause a delay in receiving VA benefits, such as disability payments.

“One of the things we do here at the office here at this office, is we help veterans with the VA Disability claims. And sometimes for those claims, you have to gather more evidence, you have to get notes from doctor’s diagnoses from doctors,” asid Hudson.” And if we can’t, if the veteran can’t get in to see their VA doctor for a year, then that holds up being able to do our job and get our disability claims done for these veterans. A lot of veterans that’s what they’re surviving on is Social Security and veteran’s disability.”

Hudson has been trying his best to get the situation fixed but has had little success.

“I’ve contacted several senators, congressmen, congresswomen, I’ve contacted the VA down in Minneapolis. I’ve contacted anyone I can get the name of.”

Since FOX 21 began looking into this situation in November, Hudson says there have been some improvements.

“It took a while, it took almost a year before we finally started to see some movements. But there have been a couple more doctors sent up here now. And they do have some telehealth doctors that are helping to fill the gaps.”

These changes have helped. The VA office in Minneapolis issued a statement to Fox 21 about the Superior VA Clinic saying that wait time was down about four days in the first week of December. The statement, quoting Public Affairs Officer Melnie Nelson, went on to say “VA is actively working to decrease wait times at the Twin Ports Community Based Outpatient Clinic…We acknowledge wait times fluctuate based on several factors but are encouraged as they are going down.”

“We acknowledge we haven’t met the established standard and will continue to do everything possible to make this better for our Veterans.”

Hudson says he hopes that in the future the VA will respond much more quickly to concerns at the Twin Ports VA Clinic.

“ With this, with veterans, we have to get this right, we can’t let our Vietnam veterans, our veterans who, you know, they depend on this for this for their health care. We can’t let them down and we can’t let them wait a year to get in and see a doctor. ”

• If you are having isues with the Twin Ports VA Clinic –  contact the VA’s Patient Advocate at 612-467-2106