{"id":62337,"date":"2025-12-05T23:35:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T23:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/62337\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T23:35:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T23:35:11","slug":"va-secretary-collins-visits-staten-island-clinic-discusses-veteran-benefits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/62337\/","title":{"rendered":"VA Secretary Collins visits Staten Island clinic, discusses veteran benefits"},"content":{"rendered":"

STATEN ISLAND, NY — U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins visited the Staten Island VA Clinic in Bloomfield on Friday, where he met with Congressmember Nicole Malliotakis and a group of Staten Island veterans.<\/p>\n

Collins and Malliotakis, who represents Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn, have previously collaborated on a tele-town hall earlier this year to address VA services and benefits.<\/p>\n

The visit began with a private meeting between the two, where they discussed a range of topics, including bringing more specialists to the Staten Island clinic, and the department\u2019s lengthy hiring process for nurses and social workers. <\/p>\n

\"SecretarySecretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins met with Rep. Nicole Malliotakis and local veterans at the Staten Island VA Clinic in Bloomfield on Friday, Dec. 5.Advance\/SILive | Nicolette Cavallaro<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really put an emphasis on that process. Right now, it could take over 30 days,\u201d the congressmember shared after the meeting. \u201cWe are working on streamlining it.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Malliotakis, Collins also discussed that the backlog of veterans waiting for benefits is down by 57% and more than 1.4 million appointments outside of normal operating hours have been offered.<\/p>\n

\"SecretarySecretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins met with Rep. Nicole Malliotakis and local veterans at the Staten Island VA Clinic in Bloomfield on Friday, Dec. 5.Advance\/SILive | Nicolette Cavallaro<\/p>\n

The new secretary also stated that in the past few months, the administration has eliminated the backlog of veteran families waiting for healthcare and has helped open 20 new VA clinics across the country. <\/p>\n

After the meeting, Collins met with distinguished members of the clinic staff, thanking them for their services to veterans and the community. This included social workers, physicians, pharmacists and nurse practitioners. <\/p>\n

\"SecretarySecretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins met with Rep. Nicole Malliotakis and local veterans at the Staten Island VA Clinic in Bloomfield on Friday, Dec. 5. After their meeting, Collins met with distinguished members of the clinic staff.Advance\/SILive | Nicolette Cavallaro<\/p>\n

Before leaving the clinic, Collins and Malliotakis sat down with local veterans who participate in the congressmember\u2019s roundtable, which brings together service members in her district. <\/p>\n

There, Collins discussed a variety of topics, such as streamlining veteran care, reducing wait times and revamping the disability claims system.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been able to root out a lot of stuff that helps our doctors internally at direct care, but also community care, for the times you need to go to a community doctor. We\u2019ve made that a lot easier,\u201d Collins said. \u201cThe best medical interest is a standard that you can get as a veteran.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SecretarySecretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins met with Rep. Nicole Malliotakis and local veterans at the Staten Island VA Clinic in Bloomfield on Friday, Dec. 5.Advance\/SILive | Nicolette Cavallaro\"SecretarySecretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins met with Rep. Nicole Malliotakis and local veterans at the Staten Island VA Clinic in Bloomfield on Friday, Dec. 5.Advance\/SILive | Nicolette Cavallaro<\/p>\n

According to the secretary, female veterans will also now benefit from streamlined access to women\u2019s health services. A new policy allows women to schedule appointments directly with OB-GYN care providers without requiring a primary care referral first.<\/p>\n

He also mentioned that he has pushed forward a continuous dialogue with Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense. Collin\u2019s goal is to work closely with the Department of Defense to improve care coordination and recruitment.<\/p>\n

\"SecretarySecretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins met with Rep. Nicole Malliotakis and local veterans at the Staten Island VA Clinic in Bloomfield on Friday, Dec. 5.Advance\/SILive | Nicolette Cavallaro\"SecretarySecretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins met with Rep. Nicole Malliotakis and local veterans at the Staten Island VA Clinic in Bloomfield on Friday, Dec. 5. After their meeting, Collins met with distinguished members of the clinic staff.Advance\/SILive | Nicolette Cavallaro<\/p>\n

\u201cPete and I have actually combined together to do something never been known before,\u201d Collins stated. \u201cDid you realize [the] Department of Defense, now the Department of War and Veterans Affairs, had never really communicated, except in just various levels, on committees? Pete and I both see that it\u2019s a recruitment issue to a retirement issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the end of his discussion, the secretary put forward a call to action for the gathered veterans. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is where I need you. We have a big problem with death by suicide in this country and [among our] veterans [this is] way too high. …There was always a saying, \u2018no man left behind.\u2019 That didn\u2019t stop,\u201d he shared. \u201cI\u2019ve got plenty for everybody. Tell them all to come; 60% of our deaths by suicide are with people who have not had any contact with the VA.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, NY — U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins visited the Staten Island VA Clinic in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-62337","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}