Executive orders create more uncertainty in VA, which is already fighting for job filling – the American home project

In the area of ​​Hampton, Virginia, a region where many of its healthcare facilities are old and overwhelmed, the veterans department hopes two newly built medical clinics will help relieve tension.

“This area is one of the fastest growing veterans populations, just because of all the installations here,” VA said under the secretary of the healthcare, Sherf Ernahal last year in the cutting of the tape for one of the two facilities – a new clinic in the Langley Air Force Base.

But the veterans will have to wait longer for a second clinic – an outpatient facility in Chesapike, which VA plans to open in 2024. Now it is not expected to be ready for patients until April 11.

VA cites problems with the resolution, installation of IT equipment and the delay of time, according to agency spokesman John G. Rogers.

Hiring is also a problem. With the new opening date of about 90 days, Hampton VA has not found candidates for more than two -thirds of 527 people needed to manage the clinic, Rogers said.

Stacey, a shorter from the US Federation of Civil Servants, the local 53, which covers the area, said it was not enough time for three months to hire many employees on time to open.

“There are hundreds of different types of disciplines that manage a hospital,” he said briefly. “You can’t manage a hospital with all the doctors. Who will do the planning? Who will do the cleaning? Who will sterilize the equipment?”

The Union is concerned that President Trump’s executive order for freezing federal hiring will exacerbate the problems in VA, which has a shortage of staff in many healthcare facilities across the country.

In the VA, the federal freezing of hiring has become a moving goal. Shortly after Trump’s executive order became public, VA has announced 300,000 out of about 485,000 VA positions will not be subject to freezing – mainly critical care positions, such as doctors and nurses.

Hampton VA went further, stating that the entire Chesapeake clinic was released from freezing.

Retired psychiatrist Harold Codeler, a former CEO of VA, who runs the Mental Health Program in the Hampton region, said a number of things create a shortage of staff, including the basic legislation that expanded VA benefits in 2022.

“This problem of hiring VA did not start with the Trump administration,” he said. “The Pact Law was the cherry on the cake as a quick expansion. Literally, more than a million, nearly 2 million, people enrolled in VA based on that.”

VA continued to hire after the law passed, but began to decrease last year, facing a budget deficit. Kudler said the cost of care was also ballooned under the 2018 mission Act, which allowed more veterans to choose care from suppliers who were not in the community.

More briefly, the Union employee said that hiring a slowdown could lead to a snowball effect that could have a long -term effect if veterans seek care outside VA.

“We have no staff, we can’t see the patients. Everyone will take care of the community. So we send all our money there, so even if the freezing is over, we have no money to hire new staff,” she said.

And then there is concern about Trump’s executive order, which requires federal employees to return to the office if they work remotely. VA has no place for workers hired to work for remotely or clinicians who share an office, said Sheila Elliott, another employee of the US Government Federation.

“We have no place to sit on the spot,” Elliott said. “When you have people who see veterans for their health conditions, etc., these people should be in private offices.”

She said it is difficult for employees to receive consistent answers from VA leaders who may not know how new policies will be implemented.

A Hampton VA statement said that despite the changes, “the facility has no plans to reduce care, virtual or personally that we provide our veterans.”

This story has been produced by American Homefront Project, public media cooperation, which reports US military life and veterans.