This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

The Obama administration's decision to allow more veterans to get care at private hospitals, announced on Saturday, could take some pressure off backlogged Veterans Affairs facilities struggling to cope with new patients as well as old soldiers.

Agreeing to recommendations from lawmakers, the White House said it will allow more veterans to obtain treatment at private hospitals and clinics, in an effort to improve care.

On Sunday Representative Jeff Miller, a Florida Republican and chairman of the House veterans affairs committee, welcomed the announcement by the VA secretary, Eric Shinseki, but questioned why it took so long. Reports about the deaths of veterans awaiting treatment at a Phoenix VA hospital surfaced more than a month ago.



"You've got an entrenched bureaucracy that exists out there that is not held accountable, that is shooting for goals, goals that are not helping the veterans," Miller said.

Senator Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont and chairman of the Senate veterans affairs committee, said: "I think it's unfair to blame Shinseki for all the problems. Can he do better? Yes."

Shinseki, who has faced Republican calls for his resignation, also said on Saturday that VA facilities were enhancing capacity of their clinics so veterans could get care sooner. In cases where officials cannot expand capacity at VA centres the department is "increasing the care we acquire in the community through non-VA care," he said.

Lawmakers from both parties had pressed for the policy change as the VA confronts allegations about treatment delays and falsified records at centres nationwide.

The Arizona Republican senator John McCain has called for the VA to allow more veterans to receive medical care at private hospitals. The Democratic House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, from California, has said she was open to the idea of medical care at private hospitals.



Miller and Sanders made their comments on CNN's State of the Union.

The VA inspector general says 26 facilities are under investigation, including the Phoenix hospital where a former clinic director says as many as 40 veterans may have died while awaiting treatment.



Officials also are investigating claims that VA employees have falsified appointment records to cover up delays in care. An initial review of 17 people who died while awaiting appointments in Phoenix found that none of their deaths appeared to have been caused by delays in treatment.

The allegations have raised fresh concerns about the administration's management of a department that has been struggling to keep up with the influx of veterans returning home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Vietnam veterans needing more care as they age.

The directive announced on Saturday should make it easier for veterans to get medical care at non-VA facilities, according to an agency spokeswoman.

The VA spent about $4.8bn (£2.9bn) last year on medical care at non-VA hospitals and clinics, a spokeswoman, Victoria Dillon, said. That amounts to about 10% of healthcare costs for the Veterans Health Administration, the agency's healthcare arm.

It was not clear how much the new initiative would cost, Dillon said.