VA Secretary visits Omaha VAMC

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VA Secretary visits Omaha VAMC

August 23rd, 2011

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

by Anna Morelock

A large thunderstorm the evening of Aug. 18 damaged vehicles, knocked out power and delayed Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki’s trip to the Omaha VA Medical Center.

While it was pushed back about five hours, Shinseki’s priority while in town was to host a White House Rural Roundtable with Nebraska community leaders. Shinseki was joined in the Omaha VAMC Education Conference Room by Sen. Ben Nelson, Rep. Lee Terry and about 30 organization leaders from Nebraska, the Midwest Health Care Network and VA Regional Office, Lincoln.

“We finally got here, and what’s wonderful is to walk in the room and everybody who was scheduled to be here, despite the fact that we’re very, very late, were all here wanting to have the dialogue,” Shinseki said. “It was very open, and I was very pleased at the insights.”

The group discussed the challenges of delivering health care to rural communities. The meeting was intended to be a direct line between the voices at the meeting and the White House, Shinseki said. Issues discussed will go back to the White House Rural Council.

“At VA we’re focused on expanding access to Veterans wherever they live. In rural areas access means extending VA’s reach to facilities closer to home, like the 11 clinics in Nebraska, and using telehealth technology to connect them to all of the sites where medical expertise resides. In the last two years the VA has invested $284 million in telehealth and our commitment is that we must do better at reaching out to all of our Veterans wherever they live and we will do so here,” Shinseki said.

While Shinseki said health care providers in the VA and elsewhere think telemedicine is a great breakthrough, it was also a topic brought up by rural leaders at the roundtable. A lack of access to broadband limits the spread of telemedicine to some communities. Issues such as limited access to broadband is one of the issues government leaders may not hear in the course of their normal duties, Shinseki said.

“We have a tendancy to see the large urban areas with the high density populations where you generally get lots of dialogue,” Shinseki said. “Unique to the rural culture – people don’t scream for help a lot. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t needs. Our responsibility coming here was to make sure there was a voice for these communities.”

After the roundtable Shinseki took a brief tour of the Omaha VAMC including the operating rooms and Dental Clinic. While talking with media, Shinseki commented briefly on the need for a new medical center in Omaha, which is scheduled to be completed in 2018.

“This project is necessary because the current facilities don’t provide the support Veterans in this area – a four state area – deserve,” he said. ”A very top priority for me is safety and security both for our veterans and the workforce so we think this is a much-needed project that will satisfy all those requirements.”