White House vows to fix any VA problems

WASHINGTON — White House chief of staff Denis McDonough said President Barack Obama is “madder than hell” about possible deadly health-care delays at the Department of Veterans Affairs and determined to fix any flaws in the system.

“We’re going to get to the bottom of those things, fix them and ensure that they don’t happen again,” McDonough said on CBS’ Face the Nation in an interview aired yesterday.

The allegations that delays in treatment at veterans hospitals could have led to otherwisepreventable deaths has sparked a political scandal, including calls for the resignation of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki.

A top department official, Undersecretary of Health Dr. Robert Petzel, resigned on Friday. Critics said that was an effort at damage control.

McDonough sidestepped questions about whether Shinseki has Obama’s full confidence. “The president will continue to demand that he and all of us who work for him continue to fix these things until they are functioning the way that our veterans believe they should,” McDonough said.

Petzel’s resignation came a day after he appeared alongside Shinseki at a congressional hearing about accusations that VA medical facilities in Phoenix covered up long wait times for patients, including 40 who died while awaiting care.

Dr. Sam Foote, a whistleblower in the VA case, said on Fox News Sunday that Petzel’s resignation was “a great first step.”

Foote said officials in Washington had to know of the issue. “They knew this was a big problem,” he said.

Foote said he thinks Shinseki should stay in his job to keep the focus on fixing the problem. “But I think the president needs to keep him on a pretty short leash,” Foote said.

The VA has put three senior officials in Phoenix on administrative leave after doctors there said they were ordered to hold veterans’ names for months on a secret waiting list until a spot opened on an official list that met the agency’s two-week waiting-time goal.

Allegations have been reported about similar cover-up schemes at VA medical facilities in at least seven other cities.

The VA runs the largest U.S. health-care group, overseeing about 1,700 hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and other facilities.