SACRAMENTO —

Hospital officials at the VA Hospital in Sacramento are not surprised by a just released Associated Press survey showing that long waits for medical appointments continue to be problem.

6.8% percent of appointments took longer than 30 days, a goal set by the VA after a series of scandals rocked the agency last year. A hospital in Arizona was delaying appointments endangering lives and practices were covered up.

The national average is 2.8%.

“We have to do better,” said Sacrament Congress member Doris Matsui.

She was at the Sacramento VA Medical Center to dedicate a new building that will expand space for mental health and substance abuse patients.

She noted that the facility is struggling to hire qualified workers after being budgeted for 200 additional medical workers by an infusion of funds following the scandal.

In addition, the Sacramento facility has one of the fastest growing patient populations in the country, growing at ten times the national average.

“I’m going to keep track of this. Veterans, we don’t want them to feel that they’re being refused or stopped any way at all,” said Matsui.

Hospital officials note that many of the extended appointment times are for specialty care which are non-life threatening.

And they say while 9,000 patients who must wait longer than 30 days is not acceptible, nearly 100,000 patients are getting seen within the 30-day time frame.

Even Matsui believes that the additional hires will and the elimination of long waits will eventually come. The question is whether the addtional expansion of care can keep up with the growing population of veterans moving into the area.