what kind of crap doctors do they have at the VA?

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My husband is entitled as a veteran to receive reduced-cost drugs from the VA. The problem is our primary care doctor has made several mistakes when prescribing drugs, either giving the wrong (and I don't mean a generic alternative) medication or the wrong dose, even when the information is clearly presented to him in typed form. Either he has vision problems, is not detail-oriented, has dementia, or is high. In any case I have requested a change of primary care doctor due to these issues.

Where this is making me crazy is there is a rather complicated schedule of eye drops that have to be administered before and after cataract surgery which my husband has coming up. They filled one drug wrong, another was not on their formulary so I requested it at a private pay pharmacy where it was going to cost me $362! so I had to ask the surgeon to select an alternate drug, which I was willing to buy private pay but she faxed it to the VA clinic (despite my clear instructions) so now I am spinning my wheels trying to get them to find and fill the prescription...

Is your autistic brain following this? Mine neither. I'm going nuts just trying to deal with all these changes and errors.

You have my sympathy.  I gave up on the VA long ago, after a case worker (not a doctor) declared that, according to my records, I was trying to defraud the VA because he looked at my shoulder (the left one, which is not the one with the surgery scars), without even a glance at the other shoulder that needed treatment.

I tried to explain that when we faced each other, my right shoulder (the bad one) was on his left and the good one was on his right.  But no, he knew perfectly well his right from his left and he wasted no time in telling me so.

I ended up getting treatment from Kaiser-Permanente (which is another horror story all its own).

By the way, welcome back!

I refer to the doctors like the one you described as "Dr. Dumbass". I've run into a lot of them in my life, they sure want to make you rip your hair out and wonder how it is that they can tie their own shoes.

The VA has a well-known history of hiring doctors and other staffers from the bottom of the barrel. These people get paid well off the taxpayer dime, but do a sh!tty job once they are there. I read a long time ago that their docs only work a few hours 2 or 3 days a week. This is why there is always such a delay in getting an appointment, even for critical stuff. Each time there is a big enough uproar to get the VA head replaced, I start to think that the VA system will finally get fixed, and each time, the new head doesn't do much of anything to fix the problems there. The whole VA system needs to be taken over by the veterans themselves, by force if necessary.

In case this sounds too strong, just remember, these people served our country, and many got hurt or sick in the process, so we owe them much better than they are getting.

I'm not a veteran, but the way the VA has been, and is being run makes me very angry.

My former brother-in-law had a cancerous growth on his ear, they delayed the surgery and he wound up losing the whole ear instead of a chunk.He had already survived cancer of the liver , you’d think he would have been a priority.
Our vets deserve better.