New Regional VA Leader Meets With Congresswoman Martha Roby
Veterans Hospitals across the country and in Alabama have come under fire over the last year for everything from long wait times to negligent care.
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As part of the changes, a new director for the southeast region has just started her new position.
Leslie Wiggins is the new VA director for our region.
She’s only been on the job for about one week, but she’s already working closely with our congressional delegation.
Reforms are already underway to help fix the veteran’s healthcare system.
Wait times stretched into months for many, leading to even more problems and complications.
Part of the solution is changing out the chain of command.
The secretary of veterans affairs was changed out in 2014, and now the southeast region has a new director, Leslie Wiggins.
“In the state of alabama, it’s a growing population. I think the veteran population for the central Alabama facility in this last year grew by almost 4 percent. Our challenge will always be keeping that access in a timely manner, getting our facilities built or leased in a timely manner, along with recruitment,” said Wiggins.
She met with Congresswoman Martha Roby, who has been on the front lines of the VA healthcare issue.
Wiggins comes from leading the VA in Atlanta, and says she has a lot of experience to help Alabama and the whole region.
“Well one of the things we’re doing right here. Increased transparency, being here on the front line of where things happen, answering the questions of our constituents, partnering with our stakeholders to include our congressional representatives. This job we have,this responsibility, this honor to take care of veterans is a complex one,” said Wiggins.
Congresswoman Roby is happy to see changes happening, but she’s also still pursuing a bill in congress that would allow for a takeover of VA hospitals in extreme situations.
“I believe it is yet another tool that the VA can then use to deal with the worst of the worst, the bottom 3 percent that we need to cut through the bureaucracy, have direct accountability,” said Rep. Roby.
