I have a friend that s a Vietnam veteran suffering from the effect of exposure to Agent Orange. Recently he had to be taken to a local emergency center stabilized and then when they tried to send him to the local VA which in Cleveland is the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center (named after a local politician of course) the EM center was told they had no beds available! Since he needed treatment he was shuffled around between two local hospitals for two days before the VA let him in. When he got there the ward was mostly empty but he assumed they had let people out.
Later after receiving treatment and being released and recovering at home he started to receive billing for the two hospitals he had been sent to because the VA would not take him even though he was entitled. The bills were not inconsequential amounting to thousands of dollars. Which the VA said they were not responsible for the costs! I could maybe understand a minor outpatient situation but this was life threatening and they refused to admit him.
Though a local tea party association with some connection a call was made to an Ohio Senator and weeks later it appeared the VA was covering some, but not all, of those costs. I don’t know if this was from the Ohio senator or just the efforts of my friends. But in discussions with my friends more information came out.
A relative of my friend who is also a Vietnam Vet had a similar experience recently and his doctor told him that it was standard policy for the VA to say they had no beds. Now I don’t know if this is part of the other scandal at the VA but it seems that they have a policy sample of 2 but the same story with the doctors telling one of them that he felt that was common to say, “there are no beds available” that this is just a way to force the veteran to incur costs or maybe they will just die and they will be done with them.
I am also a Vietnam Vet with a disability from wounds in Vietnam and I go to the Louis Stokes VA for my treatments so far not life threatening nor requiring admission but it is a NEW building with lots of capacity so from my experience the “No Beds” doesn’t seem right to me.
This post is placed here to see if any others have got this treatment and if so please leave a comment here so we can take action on this potentially serious problem.
Centinel2012 
You might see if Dom can get Sen. Portman involved. Otherwise, try the local media.
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Dom’s already working on Bill!
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The Memphis V A hospital has been neglecting women veterans since I came from southeast Asia, Clark AFB triage medic this didn’t just start is been going on since forever like decades. In the past years I received substandard care and retalitation for instance I made 3 trips to the emergency room and was told the pain in my side was a muscle strain that same nite i went to the med and had surgery for a grapefruit size cyst had ruptured and spurting blood into my body. I was given the wrong dosage of blood pressure medicine and almost went into shock when it got too low. A nurse in the emergency room jerked a needle out of my hand tearing the skin because I complain that the needle was hurting. The dentist capped a rotten tooth and I had a painful abcess for 2 yrs or more. My last primary care appointment was a telephone call from the nurse. 2013 was the last time I saw her, 2015 is my next appt the employees discuss your medical information among themselves and with friends. a drunk technician did an ekg. they are so comfortable in mistreating us from the highest to the lowest level employees. those hospitals need to be close and be privatized no more money until the thugs are gone. when people work at the v a its like going to socialize and get paid to the ignore the patients and gossip about the money you get as a vet we are not charity cases and shouldn’t be practice on.
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