Government firings hit home at Augusta VA hospital
Screen shot
At a joint hearing on Capitol Hill earlier this week, U.S. Sen.Angus King, I-Maine, voiced his concern of the widespread firings in the U.S. Department of Veterinary Affairs.
Seven employees of the Togus VA Medical Center in Augusta were fired this week as part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to shrink the federal bureaucracy with widespread job cuts.
The probationary staffers were among 1,400 employees of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs affected by the latest round of layoffs, bringing the total number to 2,400 in less than a month and stoking fears of a wider purge. The effort is being overseen by the new Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk.
The Togus facility provides primary care and specialty health services, including mental health services, long-term nursing care and treatment for spinal cord injuries.
Five of the seven employees who were let go are veterans themselves. They worked as police dispatchers, managed logistics and served in the Veterans Experience Office.
“All these roles play a critical part in delivering the care and support our veterans earned and deserve,” U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said in a written statement calling the firings "reckless."
“Without a police dispatcher, there will not be someone to connect police and first responders as they respond to emergencies at Togus,” King said. “Without logistics staff, there will not be anyone to distribute incoming supply orders; meaning medical departments across the hospital won’t have timely access to the supplies they need.
“At a time when Maine’s veteran population needs are on the rise, now is not the time for us to ask the hard working staff of the VA to do more with less,” he continued. “The fact that the majority of the Togus firings are veterans themselves adds insult to injury as they work to deliver care to those who served.”
King also voiced his wider concern of the VA purse at a hearing on Capitol Hill, urging veterans to report any shortcomings that arise due to the firings.
"They say we will protect the doctors and direct service workers, but if nobody is in there to answer the phone when a veteran calls for an appointment, that is a denial of benefits," he told fellow lawmakers. "And so this idea that bureaucrats are not important really galls me."
In a separate statement on the Togus firings, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she had been in touch with the Trump administration for more information on the matter.
“Maine has one of the highest numbers of veterans per capita of any state in the country, and I have always been a staunch advocate for funding for Maine’s only VA hospital, Togus,” she said. “ Our local VA understands the staffing they require to meet the needs of Maine veterans better than Washington. They deserve to be included in personnel decisions at their facility. It is my understanding that, on this occasion, they were not consulted.”
She also noted that while the Trump administration has the right to look at ways to streamline service for veterans, “it needs to be taking a careful look at the agency’s needs, not making sweeping, indiscriminate cuts — especially when we are dealing with something as critical as caring for our nation’s veterans.”
Mainebiz web partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments