The managers of the agencies that provide health care and disability benefits to New Mexico veterans say wait times for medical appointments and disability claims have improved.
Andrew Welch, New Mexico VA Health Care System director, and Chris Norton, regional director for the Veterans Benefits Administration, told the Albuquerque Journal that notable progress has been made in the past two years.
Welch says as of last month, the average wait time for a primary care appointment was about seven days.
Norton says his office has cut the wait time for veterans' disability claims from more than a year to about 130 days.
An Associated Press report identified New Mexico as one of the worst ranked states for delayed appointments.
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