The Department of Veterans Affairs, with medical facilities under its control, could make an impressive contribution to the health care system when the US coronavirus epidemic spread.
However, only 135 infected civilians were able to provide treatment there when national hospitals were crowded.
This is reported on Saturday, April 18, by the “Bloomberg” agency.
To date, in the United States, more than 712 thousand patients with coronavirus infection are recorded. This has led to severe overloads in the US healthcare system. The medical facilities of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs could solve the problem, but they became victims of political confrontation.
For a long time, Washington tried to arrange large-scale privatization of the largest network of hospitals in the country. Donald Trump, barely becoming president, instructed his son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner to take personal control of the situation. All this ended with the mass dismissal of employees of the department.
Even at a time when the coronavirus was already a real threat to the United States, White House officials kept the department’s medical facilities aloof, although the department itself was one of the first to monitor the spread of COVID-19.
By the end of January, department specialists warned officials that the virus could destroy the US medical system and economy. They called for more equipment for hospitals. Th requests were ignored.
“Since then, employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs have faced shortages of protective equipment, including those for non-medical workers, who were involved in examining new patients”, – the media reported.
As a result, only 5 thousand patients with COVID-19 were admitted in 1244 hospitals of the federal department. Among them, there were only 135 civilians.