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Waits Grow at San Diego VA Hospital

A San Diego-area veterans' hospital is facing a shortage of surgeons, nurses and staff that has created a backlog of as many as 500 patients waiting for orthopedic surgery.

A San Diego-area veterans' hospital is facing a shortage of surgeons, nurses and staff that has created a backlog of as many as 500 patients waiting for orthopedic surgery.

Patients at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in La Jolla are waiting up to 18 months for elective, non-emergency operations like joint-replacement surgery.

Hospital officials say the facility is taking steps to address the problem including increasing operating room hours and transferring elective surgeries to other facilities.

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A hospital executive says the goal is to reduce waits to six months by the end of this year.

Waits have increased since 2004, when the V-A began granting service personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan automatic eligibility into the V-A health care system.