"This approach has prevented the VA from acknowledging the severity of systemic problems and from taking the necessary steps to provide quality care to veterans," Lerner wrote to Obama. "As a result, veterans' health and safety has been unnecessarily put at risk."
Complaints about lack of access to VA health care have prompted a national outcry that led to VA Secretary Eric Shinseki's resignation. The most startling allegations have arisen out of the VA's medical center in Phoenix, where a VA inspector general's investigation found that about 1,700 veterans in need of care were "at risk of being lost or forgotten" after being kept off an official, electronic waiting list.
Lerner says the office is reviewing more than 50 complaints alleging threats to patient health and safety and has referred 29 of them to the VA for investigation.
Gibson said he would be designating an official to assess the conclusions reached by the Office of Special Counsel, as well as its proposed corrective actions.
He said the review would be completed within 14 days.
"I respect and welcome the letter and the insights from the Office of Special Counsel," Gibson said. "I am deeply disappointed not only in the substantiation of allegations raised by whistleblowers, but also in the failures within VA to take whistleblower complaints seriously."