'Morale is dropping': Dire 'support staff' shortage imperiling VA hospitals — and it may 'get worse'

With the help of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — formerly headed by Tesla/Space X leader Elon Musk — the Trump Administration has carried out mass layoffs at a variety of federal government agencies, from the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Another agency targeted by the Trump Administration and DOGE for mass layoffs is the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

In a Tuesday morning, July 1 report, CNN detailed the closing of VA hospitals during Trump's second administration.

CNN reporter Brian Todd told host John Berman, "We spoke to more than a dozen doctors, nurses and other employees at VA hospitals across the country. Most of them spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. They were even reluctant to disclose the facility or even the state where they work. They say that right now, morale in many hospitals is dropping."

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Todd continued, "Doctors are voluntarily leaving because of the strain on the workforce and the supply chain, in some cases, and because of attrition and hiring freezes — some of those freezes imposed during the Biden Administration, we have to say. There is not enough support staff, they say."

According to Todd, some of these problems were plaguing VA hospitals "before these layoffs at the VA ... occurred."

Todd told Berman, "Now, VA says its goal is to implement a reduction in force that could affect as much as 15 percent of the VA's workforce, and that amounts to about 70,000 people. And the doctors and nurses we spoke to are worried that when the layoffs actually do occur en masse and more support staff leave, that the situation will get worse."

One of the VA nurses CNN interviewed was Irma Westmoreland, who works at the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center in Augusta, Georgia.

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Westmoreland told CNN, "As they lay off support staff like our dietitians, our dietary staff, our housekeeping staff, and the staff that support us, then we're going to be having to take on those jobs. And so, when we have to take on those jobs, that means our patients are going to have to wait longer for the treatment and care that they deserve and they need. And that's our concern."

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