Approximately 121,000 American veterans have either been forced to wait months for a medical appointment or receive none at all, reported an audit of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Released Monday, the VA audit found that approximately 57,000 veterans have waited up to three months to have a medical appointment and an additional 64,000 veterans signed up for the VA's health care in the past 10 years have never been seen by a doctor.
The audit was noted by Matthew Daly of the Associated Press as being the "first nationwide look at the VA network in the uproar that began with reports two months ago of patients dying while awaiting appointments and of cover-ups at the Phoenix VA center."
"Examining 731 VA hospitals and large outpatient clinics, the audit found long wait times across the country for patients seeking their first appointments with both primary care doctors and specialists," reported Daly.
"The audit is the third in a series of reports in the past month into long wait times and falsified records at VA facilities nationwide."
Other findings of the audit included 13 percent of schedulers reporting that their superiors told them to falsify reports to make waiting times appear shorter than in reality.