WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs has apologized for what it called an “inadvertent” mistake that underreported the number of deaths linked to delays in cancer treatment at VA medical facilities.
“VA inadvertently caused confusion in its communication” of a review of cases involving patient harm or deaths linked to delays in treatment for gastrointestinal cancers, the agency said in a statement.
The VA apologized for the error and said, “There was no intent to mislead anyone with respect to the scope or findings of these reviews.”
A lawmaker who has been leading oversight of the agency was unsatisfied.
“Even though landmark VA reform legislation has been signed into law, it seems the same sort of dishonesty and deception that caused the VA scandal is continuing unabated at the Department of Veterans Affairs,” said Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee.
The dispute centers on a VA “fact sheet” distributed to Congress in April. The report said a review of 250 million cases dating to 1999 showed 23 veterans with gastrointestinal cancers had died under questionable circumstances related to treatment delays.
The department said in a statement Thursday that officials had actually reviewed only 11,000 cases over a two-year period, from October 2009 to September 2011, and found that 24 veterans had died.