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FL Lawsuit Against VA Includes Errors

There’s no shortage of complaints these days about how patients have to wait for treatment at Department of Veteran’s Affairs hospitals. But a lawsuit filed by the state misstates several claims about  the problem, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Roland "Dale" Dickerson is one of two veterans used as examples of delays in the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration lawsuit request access to inspect state VA medical facilities. The Times reviewed the Largo resident’s medical files and said lawsuit details about the blockage in his coronary arteries, requests for heart surgery at another hospital and claims he needed to get costly private insurance don’t match the medical files.

Dickerson and his wife say they still back the state lawsuit despite the errors.

He told the Times the VA Health System “nearly killed” him by delaying his quadruple-bypass surgery, which he finally received in 2012.

Originally founded in December 2006 as an independent grassroots publication dedicated to coverage of health issues in Florida, Health News Florida was acquired by WUSF Public Media in September 2012.