I'm a veteran with some first hand experience with Bad Boy Ralph Copolla, MD at the Reno VA Hospital. HE provided incompetent and inadequate services to THIS veteran topping it off with a god-plex attitude and saying loudly he, also a sexist, doesn't understand Why the VA has Women's Health. I'm sure there is a paper trail as I brought in the patient advocate about him..

Veterans: We need to demand uniformity of care throughout the VA medical system. It is my experience that VA care at hospitals closest to centers of research=better care vs. those VA hospitals farther away and I have received care from the best at those in the San Francisco Bay Area/Stanford to the strongly questionable in Texas, Oregon and here in Reno,Nevada. If you have a serious medical condition the best VA hospitals are nearest to centers of research such as Stanford/San Francisco and your care will increasingly be compromised the farther away you are geographically. Shinsheki needs to receive a petition from Veterans to demand uniformity of care vs. the compromise I have experienced across multiple VA Medical centers.

I wrote to Senator Reid after the first report talking about everyone getting laid off ot the hospital and the lousy parking. I received a letter back from Dr. Kurk the Director. He said there are no problems in the staffin g of the hospital, that they have plenty of people and there was enough parking for patients and staff. After the second reports came out, I wrote Senator Reid again. I told him that Dr. Kurk hasn't been down on the street to see all the cars in front of the local residents houses taking up their parking because the hospital doesn't have enough of their own. Dr. Kurk said they would be working on a new parking structure in 2014. I've been scheduled for appointment only to have them moved. Dr. Kurk really isn't good for the hospital. Why shoulld a patient sit for hours in emergency?

It's sad to see doctors who have worked for VA Reno for a long time fired for speaking out. It's clear the NO FEAR ACT was skirted using "at will" employment pretext. Why would anyone go into federal service for an "at will" employment, while private sector ENT and emergency room docs can make a lot more money. Ultimately this hurts our veterans.

Interesting