📍 Staffing Shortages at North Battlefield Clinic: Reps Scott and Kiggans Press VA Secretary

Representatives Bobby Scott (D-VA) and Jen Kiggans (R-VA) pressed VA Secretary Doug Collins this week on persistent staffing shortages at Hampton Roads VA facilities — including the North Battlefield Outpatient Clinic in Chesapeake, which opened in April with only 30% of its positions filled.

Ten months later, the clinic is still only 62% staffed — 335 of 534 positions filled — despite the VA’s own goal of being fully staffed by January.

What Happened at the Hearing

Scott asked Collins directly whether hiring freezes, proposed mass layoffs, and the termination of collective bargaining agreements have hurt VA recruitment. Collins deflected, comparing the VA’s challenges to “any other hospital system,” while also admitting that VA salary caps make it impossible to compete — citing anesthesiologist starting salaries of $600,000 in the community that the VA simply can’t match.

Rep. Kiggans, a Navy veteran and former Hampton VA employee, raised the ongoing leadership vacuum at the Hampton VA Medical Center: “We still do not have a director position that’s filled.”

Our President Speaks Up

AFGE Local 2328 President Stacy Shorter was quoted in the article, confirming the leadership instability: “I’ve been there for 18 years. I don’t even know how many directors we’ve had. That’s how many it’s been.”

On the staffing crisis, Shorter pointed to the real causes:

“I think that the hiring problems are caused because of the perfect storm of OMB’s attempts to ‘traumatize the federal workforce,’ the fork in the road encouraging people to resign and retire early, the ‘tell me five things you did last week’ morale busters that came out of the DOGE committee, followed by the hiring freeze, the removal of positions off of the org chart and the gaslighting where people are repeatedly saying, ‘You’re overstaffed, you’re overstaffed.'”

“Well, the boots on the ground frontline employees are working themselves to death and having their vacation canceled because of lack of staffing. So one plus one does not equal three.”

The Bottom Line

Hampton Roads is home to approximately 70,000 veterans who depend on these facilities. When the VA can’t recruit and retain staff, veterans wait longer, employees burn out, and care suffers. The administration’s own policies — hiring freezes, CBA terminations, and workforce demoralization — are making the problem worse, not better.

📰 Read the full article: Representatives question VA about staffing shortages at Chesapeake, Hampton facilities — The Virginian-Pilot