Lebanon Caregiver shortages that have forced veterans to wait for care from the Veterans Health Administration are early indicators of a more general problem in health care, the Cabinet secretary who oversees the 340,000-employee medical care system that serves the nations veterans said Monday.

We are approaching a national train wreck, Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald said in a speech to about 150 people at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center that was broadcast on closed circuit television at colleges in northern New England.

Nationally, the VA needs to hire 20,000 to 30,000 new medical personnel, said U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., chairman the Veterans Affairs Committee, who joined McDonald for the event.

We do not have enough doctors, Sanders said. We do not have enough nurses.

In White River Junction, the VA has 100 vacancies to fill, said Deborah Amdur, director of the VA Medical Center there.

The VA has already been busy hiring, Naaman Horn, a public affairs officer, said in an email: In the last year, White River Junction VA Medical Center has brought on 56 new employees for new programs and to ensure that we have good access to care.

McDonald stressed that the need for more caregivers extends beyond the VA. Florida needs 22,000 more doctors to serve its general population, and California needs 17,000, he said.

But the VA has a role to play in solving that problem as well, according to McDonald, who described the agencys three-pronged mission of medical education about 70 percent of the nations doctors receive some training at the VA, he said as well as research and clinical care for veterans.

The country needs a strong VA, he said.

Controversy about the role and performance of the VA erupted earlier this year, fueled by reports that veterans were enduring long waits for care at a VA hospital in Phoenix and elsewhere, and that some administrators were doctoring statistics to hide the backlog.

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VA Seeks Personnel Nationwide