My son was born in the navy regional medical center Orlando Florida 21 years ago. It was a good hospital with good doctors. 21 years later I go to that same hospital which is now a VA clinic that is bright and nice as it was when my son was born there. The doctors have changed and we are used to test new medicines for the general public. I have had to leave the clinic because they don’t use the medicines that work for me instead they issue new medicines that give me chest pains and make me end up in the hospital. This is why I have my own medical insurance.

Walter Reed was one of the finest facilities in the country but the system is a bit overwhelmed. The care I recieved there was great but it is socialized medicine and all of the folks who scream bloody murder about the standard of care at these facilities should think before they start demanding the same thing for everyone.

if you have never volunteered or been a patient at a VA facility, you shouldn't be able to try and use the current problems as your axe grinding tool. The problems have existed in VA facilities for a long time but now I see people like Col try and use it to make political points since there is much higher visibility due to the large influx of patients with combat injuries.

The media also neglects to do similar horror stories about every hospital in the world. The whole situation has turned into a witch hunt even though most of the people at these hospitals are trying to do the best that they can with very, very limited resources. Again we talk about costs and socialized medicine.

"It's socialized medicine Sergeant, we can only do so much" ~ Unnamed Surgeon To Geezer

True, for the most part it isn't the Doctors, Nurses, Techs, Maintenance and other staffmembers, it's the fact they are run by folks who aren't either. It's also because, like all bloated beauracracies, the bulk of the budget is spent on the top end of the food chain.