Last Updated on March 11, 2025 by BVN
Overview: Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins has announced plans to cut 80,000 jobs from the Veterans Administration (VA) as part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to reduce the agency’s workforce. However, the VA Loma Linda Healthcare System recently discovered Legionella bacteria at various locations within its facility, which raises concerns about the impact of potential job losses on the facility’s ability to provide adequate healthcare services to veterans. The VA Loma Linda Healthcare System is one of the top 50 employers in the Inland Empire, employing nearly 3300 staff members. It is unclear whether Trump’s plans to cut the VA workforce will have a local impact on the healthcare services provided to veterans.
S.E. Williams
In this moment, as President Donald Trump spreads chaos across America, we must stayed focused like a laser on impacts to every day life in our community. This is because issues and incidents at the national and local level often overlap.
Take for example what Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins told FOX News Monday about his agency looking to cut 80,000 jobs from the Veterans Administration (VA). He added that the 80,000 jobs is the VA department’s target as a way to to slim the agency’s workforce. Whether this actually comes to pass or it is just another example of Trump’s “white noise” is hard to know. However, reports currently indicate layoffs are expected to begin in June.
This may seem like a good idea to Trump supporters but it was just last August that the VA reported it “has been experiencing severe staffing shortages for at least a decade.” The shortages in fields like as doctors and nurses to nonclinical occupation staffing positions and custodial workers.
“We must ensure that our veterans are given the care and support they so richly deserve. That is our unwavering commitment to those who served under the flag of the United States.”
President Donald J. Trump
Meanwhile, last week we learned the VA Loma Linda Healthcare System had ordered precautionary testing for all pneumonia patients following the recent discovery of Legionella bacteria at various locations within its facility. This seems to be a recurring theme at this hospital.
In 2018, a group of whistleblowers, consisting of doctors and nurses, filed a complaint against the medical center claiming it was covering up a Legionella bacteria outbreak. They further claimed the Legionella was first discovered in 2017, but hospital officials had failed to act to reconcile the issue.
As the Loma Linda VA struggles with this water concern, if the president persists with his course of action there is little doubt projected cuts to staff will most certainly have a local impact. For nearly 50 years this facility has served the region’s veterans, touching at least 76,000 veterans each year. Thinking about the impact of possible job losses at the facility, with nearly nearly 3300 employees, Loma Linda VA is among the top 50 employers in the IE.
This nation owes a debt to our veterans and yet it seems they are among the most neglected. For example, 13% of the nation’s homeless are veterans.
Our veterans deserve clean water at the facility they go to for healthcare services. They also deserve a fully trained and competent staff at the facility they frequent for healthcare services. Now is the time to pressure our representatives to pressure the president to stop cuts to the VA.
Of course this is just my opinion. I’m keeping it real.
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