A Veterans Affairs clinic in northwestern New Mexico ranks among the worst in the nation when it comes to the percentage of appointments that were delayed a month or longer.
While local VA officials say they’re doing their best to expand services in rural areas where recruiting is a challenge, advocates say more needs to be done – and quickly.
The AP examined wait times at 940 VA hospitals and outpatient clinics across the US to see how things might have improved since a scandal over delays and attempts to cover them up led to the resignation of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki and prompted lawmakers in August to pass the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act.
The clinic in Farmington, ranked sixth on the list with more than 14 percent of appointments delayed 31 days or longer from Sept. 1 to Feb. 28. That’s more than five times the national average.
Two other New Mexico clinics, in Santa Fe and Rio Rancho, and the hospital in Albuquerque, also ranked near the top of the list of VA facilities where patients are mostly likely to encounter long delays. However, numbers for February showed improvements in wait times at most of the facilities.
Local VA officials say they’re trying to identify the problem as they serve 60,000 New Mexico veterans via their medical center in Albuquerque and 13 rural clinics, where over the past few years they have expanded services.
“We are planning to send a team to our Farmington (clinic) in order to work with staff there and look deeper into the appointment processes,” said Sonja Brown, spokeswoman for the New Mexico VA health care system.
Many of the patients at the Farmington clinic are walk-ins who request to be seen the same day. Brown said the clinic staff will continue to do what they can to keep up with the requests, but she explained some rural clinics in the state have just a couple of providers and if one is out or sick appointments have to be rescheduled.
“Life happens despite our best plans,” Brown said.
