VA's mission to see civilian patients in times of crisis vanished from its website

[crickets]

VA’s mission to see civilian patients in times of crisis vanished from its website

March 17, 2020 at 6:58 a.m. EDT
The Department of Veterans Affairs serves as a backup health system in times of crisis, but its mission statement for this crucial role was deleted from the agency’s website Friday as many in the country grew concerned that the coronavirus could overload civilian hospitals.

VA’s three missions are to serve veterans through care, research and training in its behemoth health system. But in 1982, Congress expanded VA’s role into what has become known as VA’s “fourth mission”: to absorb non-veteran civilian or military patients in the event that hospitals overflow in an emergency, such as a pandemic like the coronavirus.

That objective was described on VA’s Office of Emergency Management page going back to 2014, according to cached pages, and was on VA’s site as late as Friday afternoon. But later that day, references to the “fourth mission” were removed and replaced with information that doesn’t reference the mission at all.

“It’s Orwellian,” Kristofer Goldsmith, the associate director of policy and government affairs at Vietnam Veterans of America, said Monday.

“Major veterans service organizations have pressed so VA is not underfunded. This is a national security issue,” he told The Washington Post. “It’s really frightening to see the administration apparently trying to purge that from America’s memory.”

VA has deployed medical resources to help veterans and civilians alike in the wake of hurricanes, floods and tornadoes. It even sent mental health clinicians to Orlando after the Pulse nightclub massacre in 2016. And it has many resources in short supply at some hospitals, like negative pressure rooms used to contain outbreak patients, the New York Times reported.

[more]

So, the VA could be helping out with this. It's supposed to be part of their mission. Who scrubbed that mission? WHY?

[Haggis for Breakfast]

1. During 9/11, many VA hospitals accepted civilians.

This is an outrage.

Call your elected official and DEMAND an answer. Who re-wrote the mission statement of the VA ?

This is the same shit they did with the website of the National Stockpile page.

We CANNOT allow this to stand.



If we are not vigilant, they will power grab the entire government from us. We the People.

[randr]

2. I would like to forward the link to share the story

but it requires a subscription.

[crickets]

5. I had to turn off my adblocker to do it, but I can load the page just fine.

WaPo is providing all articles regarding coronavirus coverage for free, but unfortunately they filed this under military. Still, I did check before posting because I know how frustrating it is to hit a paywall, and thought it was okay. If you have an adblocker, try turning it off and see if it helps. Hope that works!

eta - sometimes there's an annoying 'windowblind' ad that pops up and tries to get you to sign up with an email. Ignore it and click the down arrow to the right to make it go away.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. Wow! There are busy little bees in MF45's administration, busily changing

mission statements. Same thing happend to the National Strategic Stockpile on Friday. Funny how Congress sets the funding for these things and some unqualified, pimple faced kid can change them.

[uponit7771]

4. Yep, more steps that screw America

[DBoon]

6. It vanished down the memory hole

like so many other statements of public benefits.