WASHINGTON - One day after deflecting calls from unhappy senators to shake up his leadership team, Eric Shinseki, the secretary of veterans affairs, ousted the department's soon-to-retire head of health care. The move came amid snowballing allegations that veterans hospitals manipulated waiting lists to hide long delays many patients faced to see physicians.
In a terse statement about what he characterized as the resignation of Dr. Robert Petzel, the Department of Veterans Affairs's undersecretary for health, Mr. Shinseki said, 'Most veterans are satisfied with the quality of their V.A. health care, but we must do more to improve timely access to that care.'
The move, at first glance, would seem to be the initial scalp offered by the Obama administration to mollify lawmakers and other critics who have ratcheted up attacks on the department as more evidence has surfaced that employees at medical centers around the country kept secret waiting lists or otherwise sought to cloak how long veterans had to wait to see doctors.
And Dr. Petzel had been a focus of ire of Republicans in Congress, particularly after he testified on Capitol Hill in late April that the department had found no indication that administrators at the Phoenix veterans hospital, the site of the most significant accusations so far, had sought to manipulate waiting lists.
But after the announcement on Friday afternoon, Republican officials quickly pointed out that Dr. Petzel's retirement had already been announced last September - to take effect this year - and that two weeks ago President Obama nominated Dr. Jeffrey A. Murawsky, a senior department official, to replace him.
In a statement, the chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, Representative Jeff Miller, Republican of Florida, was sharply critical of how Dr. Petzel's departure was announced, describing it as 'the pinnacle of disingenuous political doublespeak.'
'Characterizing this as a 'resignation' just doesn't pass the smell test,' said Mr. Miller. He said the Department of Veterans Affairs was 'splitting semantic hairs to create the illusion of accountability and progress.'
A department official disputed that characterization, saying Mr. Shinseki had asked for and received Dr. Petzel's resignation on Friday - one day after listening to tough criticism from senators and hours of testimony from veterans organizations and the department's inspector general at a Senate hearing.
Mr. Shinseki, the official said, 'takes their concerns seriously.' He added that Dr. Robert L. Jesse, who is currently the principal deputy undersecretary for health, will serve as acting undersecretary until Dr. Murawsky is confirmed by the Senate.
