Two Months, Two Letters to VA: Still No Response to Sen. Blumenthal's Request

Amid the continuing national clamor surrounding long wait times and false records at Veteran Affairs, Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal is trying to get answers from Washington D.C.

Blumenthal wrote two letters to Sloan Gibson, acting secretary for the United States Department of Veterans Affairs — one was dated June 2 and the other July 1.

As of Friday, July 11, Blumenthal's office had not received a response.

In the first letter, Blumenthal asked for an explanation for the excessive appointment delays. He requested individual VA facility audits to get "a clear understanding of the scope of the problems at those facilities," in the second letter.

There are two Connecticut VA facilities and six Community Based Outpatient Clinics. Wait times reportedly tripled between May 15 and June 15, increasing from 998 to 2,727 people with appointments scheduled with more than a 30 day wait time.

Nationally, this number increased from 242,069 to 636,436.

“I would appreciate an explanation of this across-the-board, unacceptable rise," Blumenthal wrote in the June letter. "Simply put, the VA seems to be going in exactly the wrong direction in seeking to address dangerous and deadly health care delays.”