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Nurses protest Tuesday morning outside VA hospital
Atlanta VA nurses held a rally Tuesday morning against proposed staffing and mental health service cuts. It took place outside the Joseph Maxwell Cleland Atlanta VA Medical Center in Decatur. Nurses say the cuts would slash by more than half the staff caring for veterans with serious mental illnesses. According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, they haven't made any layoffs or dismissals since February and those people were brought back in March.
DECATUR, Ga. - Registered nurses at the Joseph Maxwell Cleland Atlanta VA Medical Center rallied Tuesday to protest proposed federal cuts to staffing and mental health services for veterans and the homeless.
What we know:
The demonstration began at 11 a.m. outside the medical center on Clairmont Road in Decatur. Organizers say VA management is considering reducing by more than half the number of staff members who provide care for veterans with serious mental illnesses. The protest was organized by the National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United.
What they're saying:
Nurses say the cuts would severely impact services for some of the most vulnerable patients, including those struggling with homelessness.
"We never had enough staff to begin with. Especially in a lot of our critical service areas. The areas, such as nursing, of course, our nursing assistant, our tech techs, staff, nursing techs, physicians, are becoming rare," said Teshara Felder, a nurse at the VA.
"We are against the privatization of the VA, the layoffs, the terminations, the cutbacks in services," said Ed Anderson, a veteran who is now with GA Defense.
The other side:
According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, they haven't made any layoffs or dismissals since February and those people were brought back in March.
Additionally, the VA said there are no plans at this time to do a department-wide RIF (reduction in force) and no plans to cut anyone who provides clinical care to veterans.
The VA also said that most of the recent staff reductions were voluntary early leave or attrition and doctors, nurses and others directly involved in the care of veterans aren't allowed to take early resignation unless they are administrative.
What they're saying:
VA Press Secretary Pete Kasperowicz sent FOX 5 a statement that read:
"Imagine how much better off Veterans would be if government union bosses cared as much about fixing the department as they do about protecting its broken bureaucracy. Here are the facts:
Atlanta VA Medical Center is not reducing any staff. It is reassigning mental health care providers from low-demand specialties to those with higher demand, such as non-intensive mental health care and substance abuse treatment.
These moves will improve care for Veteran patients and have no negative impact on the Mental Health Intensive Case Management Program, which is seeing much lower caseloads than it previously has."