Senator speaks about Wasilla VA

PALMER — The U.S. Department Veterans Affairs can’t say exactly when it would start investigating the Wasilla VA clinic but other investigations coming to a conclusion should free up resources.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski said that she asked the acting inspector general Richard Griffin if he could give a timeframe for the investigation she pushed for into the Wasilla clinic.

“I asked specifically about that and he said, ‘you know I need to make sure that I’m not promising a time that we can’t deliver on but he did indicate that once the investigation in Arizona was submitted or wrapped up that then freed up opportunities and resources to kind of focus on some of these others,” she said, referring to the investigation into secret waitlists at a VA clinic in Arizona that touched off a national storm of controversy over how veterans are treated.

The Wasilla investigation, she said, is just one of more than 80 investigations the office is working on.

Murkowski said that part of her time with Griffin was spent giving the inspector general a sense of what veterans told her at a listening session she held in Wasilla last week.

“There were a lot of people in that room that needed to be heard on this issue and it’s one thing to say OK, just sent me an e-mail but to actually be there and hear directly from them was important for me and I hope that the veterans that were there felt that it was a worthwhile use of their time as well,” Murkowski said.

She said Griffin had researched the issue and came to the meeting prepared.

“He is making a very concerted effort to understand the issues there in Alaska,” she said.

In asking for an investigation of the Wasilla clinic, Murkowski cited staffing issues that, according to many vets, had caused a good doctor to leave because she was just overwhelmed. Almost as soon as that doctor left, Murkowski pointed out, the VA was able to find three doctors to send out there on a temporary basis.

“It does kind of make you wonder why they weren’t able to get her the level of assistance,” she said.

She said she brought this up with Griffin and he said there might be a way to make the jobs more attractive to permanent doctors.

“I noted that within the (Indian Health Service) system they don’t seem to be having a problem recruiting providers and he seemed to indicate that there was flexibility, that the secretary has, to make sure that the pay scale for a provider is going to be attractive enough in an area like Alaska we’re a high-cost state,” Murkowski said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.