VA on 42
 

I have been on a waiting list at the VA clinic to see a PC since September. Is this normal here in the villages?

I would think they lost your information. I was only on the waiting about six weeks. I went on the list late July and saw a doctor in September. I also went to the VA Hospital in Gainesville twice in October for a stress EKG and a cardiac cath and recently had my six month doctor visit two weeks ago.

On my orientation they said they had 12 doctors on board in TV and eventually would reach 16 doctors with each having about 1200 patients. My first doctor there almost killed me. I had a stent in 2007 plus I have diabetes II. He took me off all meds because my numbers were good. Three weeks later I had chest pains and they sent me to Gainesville for a stress EKG and a week later for a cardiac cath and possible second stent. It turned out my doctor should have never taken me off of Plavix and any of the my drugs, he had misinterperted the VA guidelines in reference to a stent. When I had my visit last week, the nurse told me that several patients had the same problem with that doctor and he is no longer there.

VA
 

I have gone there to check my name on list at least 4 times they say I am on list but don't have enough Doctors yet and some people have been waiting for over a year

That seems weird. I believe the place opened in October 2010 and I remember initially they said there was about a ten month wait, so I was surprised when I got my orientation letter in about a month.

If you have your VA ID card from up north, maybe if you weren't feeling so good one day just go to the outpatient clinic and ask to see a doctor. Go in the main entrance, walk straight ahead (if the volunteers ask you anything, say I don't need any help), go as far as you can. The lab waiting area will be to your right, turn left and go down the hall just past the pharmacy that will be on the left, the outpatient will be on the right. You won't see it right away, you have to go through a doorway, usually there is a volunteer standing at the entrance on the right. Walk up to one of the clerks that doesn't have a line and see if you can get in to see a doctor.

We seem to get right in................. :shocked:

New rules with hap is after 1 year with a stent they want you off of plavix.You are not given a choice. So changed docs and ins New doc says you never go off plavix.

I was told that they have over 2000 people on the waiting list and that they are severely understaffed. I have written my local congressman and he says they are aware of the problem. I have also spoken to the VA Liaison to the congressman here in the villages and got the same reply. Since I am a retired pharmacist, I offered to volunteer my services in the pharmacy, but they said that was the one department where they are fully staffed. The clinic did assure me that if you need to be seen in an emergency they would get you in. That of course includes any type of mental health emergency as well as physical emergency. I am wondering if the understaffing is something that could be addressed at one of the veterans groups like Vietnam Vets or the Marine Corps League? Perhaps the final answer will be that there is only so much money to go around, and that until things improve we always have the VA in Gainsville.
I already volunteer at the villages hospital, but would be willing to volunteer at the clinic if it would help my fellow vets and I am sure there are plenty of others like me around. Maybe we should meet somewhere for a beer and talk about what we could do to be part of the solution.

It is a national problem especially in the mental health areas of the VA. Good article in the Village Sun today on the front page. There was also an article in USA Today a few weeks ago stating the same things.

Do you have a service connect disability of over 30%? If not, you are on the bottom of the list.

Not to highjack the thread, but their are two kinds of stents. Metal and chemical, and with chemical stents you are suppose to be on Plavix for the rest of your life. That's something that the doctor at Mulberry didn't realize with me and several other patients. A month later when I was in the Gainesville VA hospital the cardiologist there told me to never stop taking Plavix and if another doctor tells you different, don't listen and call them.

VA
 

I have my VA card and I have the required % .

I was told they transfer your paperwork electronical down from your current VA Hospital.

Where is the main VA hospital? Orlando or Gainsville?

H

For us it's in the Gainesville. I've been there twice, it's about 3 miles east of I-75, took just over an hour to get there. It's big, about 7 stories, plus when I went for a stress EKG that was in the basement.