Ministerial Inquiry into Veterans Affairs Reply to Access to Information Request

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The Honourable Greg Thompson, P.C., M.P.

I am writing in response to your letter dated 04 November 2008 (attached as DVALtr3 and DVALtr4) inwhich you once again explain the Department of Veterans Affairs policy regarding adjudication of compensation claims. You had previously explained the process and this prompted me to ask for the notes and medical specialists notes for my Hypertension and Stroke claims under the Access to Information.

The Access to Information letter that I received is attached as DVALtr1 and DVALtr2 and as you can see, no notes were kept and no medical specialists were consulted. I find it difficult to believe that a medical person (nurse or dietician) can give an accurate adjudication on something as complex as a Stroke and Hypertension that even the most educated of medical specialists are baffled as to the full cause and complications that are involved with diagnosing the conditions that may have caused this.

You letter states that "adjudicators rely on the expert advice of a group of medical professionals employed by the Department to help them in their decision making, regardless of the nature of an applicant's disability." This is obviously being ignored and I therefore request that a Ministerial Inquiry into the failure of certain Adjudicators in the Department of Veterans Affairs be ordered immediately in light of this evidence that I have submitted in order to ensure our veterans and injured serving members are being treated fairly and without prejudice. It appears by the answer to my own questions that there are adjudicators at the Department who may be causing veterans to lose faith in your wonderful Department.

I thank you for your time and look forward to a positive response to my request.


Robin Brentnall

UPDATE ON CLAIM

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I had told you earlier that I had to see the Doctor to get a review for a claim. I finally got the appointment on 31 October 2008 and should find out what the claim outcome will be in 15 weeks.

When you consider that I put in the claim in October 2007, atleast 16 months will have passed before I would get compensation for my claim, if any. And this is just a very small claim!

I am still waiting to see what will happen with my claim for the Stroke that I suffered. My military doctor, against Department of National Defense policy, sent a letter to the Bureau of Pension Advocates (lawyer assigned to fight DVA) detailing what happened to cause my Stroke. The lawyer ordered an immediate Departmental Review under Section 82 of the Pension Act. I take this to mean that the lawyer (and anyone else with a clue) believes that DVA did not do thier job when they denied my claim, not once but three times!

I'll keep you posted on the result.