Government faulted for response to ill veterans

Sixteen years after the Persian Gulf War, more than 1 in 4
of those who fought remain seriously ill with medical problems
ranging from severe fatigue and joint pain to Lou Gehrig's disease,
multiple sclerosis and brain cancer, the chairman of a
congressional advisory committee testified recently.
"This is a tragic record of failure, and the time lost
can never be regained," Binns (of VA-RAC on GWI) told
the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee.

The Gulf War Registry is the only program in place
right now that is free, reports medical information, and is
even still called "Gulf War". Everything else at VA is under
Environmental Health, and you see how well that program
works. The last three years that program has steadily gone
down the tubes.

The Gulf War Registry gains a temporary reprieve when VA took over
the St. Louis veteran reporting hotline, the contract had run out
Dec 1st 2005. However, the funding for the hotline came from
Agent Orange rather than Gulf War.

The Gulf War Registry funding lapsed in 2003,
and it only exist now because of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The Persian Gulf Registry started in 1992, and ran until it became the
Gulf War Registry, and started taking in Iraqi Freedom vets. However,
many like myself had assumed that quite a few had made it to Phase II
exams. Well, in this spreadsheet it becomes obvious that VA very much
mishandled this program. Something I had written the Whitehouse earlier
this year about.
http://www.gulflink.org/stats/EASbyYear.xls

Monitoring of Gulf War Illness Visits

PL 102-585 was created to monitor Gulf War Veterans
health. This lead to the Persian Gulf Registry.

By 1998 the program was to be expanded under
PL 105-368 to become larger, with a national study
center. To include annual reports to Congress.

Second, the issue of the Persian Gulf Registry in relation
to continuing programs. ( Gulf War Registry )

I've discussed with you the issue of access to the Gulf
War Registry, and its decline. That the decline is due
to lack of access by VAMC attrition of its EA coordinators,
once called Persian Gulf Coordinators. That the program
has been made impotent by a lack of cooperation nation
wide from the VAMC's, which has drastically reduced
enrollment though Gulf War veterans still come into the
VAMC's in ever increasing numbers.

Many Primary care clinics of VAMC's are NOT telling veterans
that this program still exists.

Therefore the Department of Veterans Affairs can deny
the problems of these veterans, when the statistics
are not Centrally collected for Congress or
Veteran's Service Organizations to see in any reports.