Kentucky veterans are not always getting the care they deserve.

That was the message to lawmakers last week during a committee hearing in Frankfort.

Our Jim Leffler reports.

Stacy Brantley tried to get her father into one of Kentucky's V.A.

nursing homes.

That never happened.

My dad actually passed away last month.

He had been waiting a year to get into that facility.

The 81 year old who served 30 years in the Army was put on a wait list.

I asked, you know, hey, is there any way to tell like where he is on this list?

I mean, is he like number ten?

Is he number 52?

It's not that Kentucky's four V.A.

nursing homes are full.

They just don't have enough nurses.

That means half of the 681 available beds are empty while veterans remain on wait lists.

According to a member of the Joint Committee on Veterans Military Affairs and Public Protection.

Lawmakers say the Kentucky Department of Veterans Affairs needs to step up.

This summer, several colleagues and I made personal visits to our V.A.

centers.

And I want to applaud your staff.

Their outstanding.

They are, sir.

The facilities are wonderful.

They're awesome.

But I have some grave concerns when it comes to communicating and the occupancy and the capacity rates.

We're not asking you to lower your standards, sir.

Thank you.

We are demanding you meet the standards, and we always will, sir.

We're asking you to meet the standards of every commissioner that's come before you.

No matter what.

If I catch a stroke in that we will be here to represent.

We just need to know when and where, sir.

The nursing shortage is acute.

More than half of nursing homes nationwide are limiting their client intake because of staffing shortages, according to the American Health Care Association.

Still, lawmakers in Kentucky expect better outcomes.

To say that I am upset is an understatement.

To see our veterans every day trying to get into a nursing home when we have open beds and then and then we say we can't do it when other states are doing it when surrounding nursing homes are full.

But our veteran nursing homes are at 50% at best is outrageous.

It just every time that you've asked or we come before us, we've given you more money for nurses.

We're giving you more, more money for heating air, whatever you ask.

But there's not been an ask.

And when we try to communicate, it's not been there.

The state did bump VA staff wages by 10% in 2022.

It also eliminated a cap on what contract nurses make until staffing improves.

Veteran centers will continue to admit clients based on need.

Absolutely.

We've got a lot of work ahead of us and we have to do it as a team because there is no one ticket or one thing that we can wave a magic wand and do this.

Veterans Affairs says nearly 300,000 veterans live in Kentucky.

For Kentucky Edition, I'm June Leffler.

Thank you, June.

The Kentucky Department of Veterans Affairs runs for veterans centers and Perry, Jessamine, Harding and Hopkins Counties.

A fifth facility is set to open and Bowling Green in 2025.