The Department of Veterans Affairs is grappling with severe staffing shortages, according to a new watchdog report that warns the problem spans nearly every corner of the nation’s veterans’ health system.

The Office of the Inspector General released its annual report Tuesday, identifying 4,434 severe occupational shortages, a 50% jump from last year’s 2,959. All 139 Veterans Health Administration facilities surveyed reported at least some staffing gaps, with some citing more than 150 shortage designations. 

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The VA Long Beach Healthcare System in California reported the most shortages of any facility, with 153, including 116 clinical occupations. On the nonclinical side, the Minneapolis VA Health Care System in Minnesota recorded the highest count, with 52 shortage occupations.

Medical officer roles, including physicians, were in short supply at 94% of facilities, while nurses were flagged as a shortage by 79%. The watchdog has identified those two occupations as critical gaps every year since 2014, despite the VA having special authority to make noncompetitive hires in those fields.

Among clinical positions, psychologists were the most frequently reported shortage, with 57% of facilities struggling to fill them. On the nonclinical side, police officers were the top shortage, reported by 58% of facilities, followed closely by custodial workers. This year, 41 different occupations were flagged as severe shortages by at least 20% of VA facilities, the most since the inspector general began collecting facility-level data in 2018.

The report did not investigate why shortages have grown so sharply, but noted the timing means the data does not fully reflect the effect of the federal Deferred Resignation Program, a workforce reshaping effort that allowed some employees to leave later while keeping pay and benefits, or other staffing changes underway at VA. The OIG’s survey was completed in April, before the latest wave of departures under the Trump administration’s buyout offer, meaning the full effect of those losses is not yet reflected in the numbers. 

VA spokesman Peter Kasperowicz pushed back on the report, telling the Washington Examiner the list is “not a reliable indicator of staffing shortages” because it reflects facilities’ subjective views on hard-to-fill jobs rather than actual vacancy counts. He said VA’s vacancy rates are 14% for doctors and 10% for nurses, lower than most healthcare systems and well below the 19% and 20% rates seen at times during the Biden administration.

Kasperowicz also said wait times and benefits backlogs have improved under President Donald Trump after worsening during former President Joe Biden’s tenure. He pointed to a 37% drop in the benefits backlog since January, shorter waits in most major care categories, the opening of 16 new clinics, nearly 1 million appointments offered outside normal hours, $800 million in facility upgrades, and record disability claims processing this year.

VA Secretary Doug Collins has said the agency, the second-largest department in the federal government, is weighed down by inefficiency and has backed workforce reductions in the past, though he later walked back an earlier proposal to cut staff by 15%. In March, department leaders floated even deeper reductions, outlining a plan to shed as many as 83,000 positions, a move that drew sharp pushback from veterans’ advocates and lawmakers who warned it would cripple care. The VA ultimately dropped the large-scale cuts in July, instead deciding to downsize by roughly 30,000 employees by year’s end, relying on retirements, attrition, and deferred resignations rather than mass layoffs.

“We are the same as every other healthcare system,” Collins told senators in a May hearing. “We are struggling to recruit doctors, nurses, and others just as anybody else.”

Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee ranking member Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said the report shows the Trump administration is making VA’s staffing problems worse, pushing seasoned employees out the door and into the private sector, even in key healthcare and safety jobs.

“This report confirms what we’ve warned for months — this administration is driving dedicated VA employees to the private sector at untenable rates,” Blumenthal said. “Staffing shortages at the Department are getting significantly worse, including critical veterans’ health care positions and essential jobs that keep VA facilities running.”

Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA), the ranking member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said the shortages are a direct result of the department’s leadership style and policies.

“This report confirms our fears: VA and veterans are worse off under Doug Collins’s leadership. Instead of making VA an employer of choice, he has vilified the workforce and stripped them of their rights, leaving critical shortages that limit veterans’ access to care,” Takano said.

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While the inspector general made no recommendations in the report, it urged VA leaders to use the findings to guide hiring and retention strategies and to follow through on fixes outlined in earlier reviews of VA staffing models.

The report noted small improvements in some areas. Psychology positions remained the most common clinical shortage, but six fewer facilities reported gaps this year. Among nonclinical roles, police officers overtook custodial workers as the most frequently cited shortage.