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VA Wait Times For Medical Appointments In Eastern Colorado Among Worst In Nation

DVIDSHUB
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WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Wait times for medical appointments at veterans facilities in eastern Colorado are among the worst in the nation, according to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs data.

As The Denver Post reports, throughout the 13 hospitals and clinics that make up the Eastern Colorado Health Care System, or ECHCS, the average wait for a primary care appointment as of July 1 was more than 12 days

Only Amarillo, Texas and Palo Alto, Calif. were worse.

Nearly 13.5 percent of all the appointments in the ECHCS clinics had longer than a 30-day wait – the worst in the nation.

Republican Sen. Cory Gardner said via Twitter, “This is unacceptable. Colorado veterans deserve better.”

The current backlog for ECHCS is worst in LaJunta, which showed average waiting periods of more than 24 days, up from about three days in 2015.

In 2011, the VA said its goal was for each veteran to be seen by a doctor within 14 days.

According to VA data, about 5.8 percent of all appointments nationwide had longer than a 30-day wait and the national wait-time average is 4.9 days.