LEWISTON — At 84, Cecile Burgoyne figures she shouldn’t have to wait too long for a doctor.

The Korean War-era veteran last saw her VA doctor in March. Twice she tried to schedule a follow-up and failed. Nobody called her back. On the third attempt, they finally scheduled her. Her appointment is in January.

“I think I need to see a doctor more than once a year,” the Auburn woman told a room full of women veterans Friday at Tri-County Mental Health in Lewiston. Meanwhile, dozens more watched a TV feed of the discussion at Tri-County offices in Rumford, Bridgton and Farmington.

“We’re growing,” said Terry Moore, the chairwoman of the Maine Women Veterans’ Commission.

Community-based outreach clinics have opened in Portland and Bangor in the past year and another is planned for Lewiston in March or April next year, Moore said. The VA hospital at Togus has new doctors for women, including a part-time gynecologist, and its women’s center is growing.

But she counseled women not to be complacent, either. Though the VA’s massive bureaucracy breaks down, there are more good, sincere people than rotten apples serving veterans, Moore said Friday.

“Don’t just sit there,” she said. She encouraged people to keep calling until someone listens.

The advice came up again and again during the noontime session aimed at answering questions from women.

Many still have problems considering themselves as veterans, Moore said.

Women who served in military auxiliaries weren’t considered veterans until 1980, when Congress changed the VA’s rules.

“They weren’t getting full recognition, not officially, by law,” she said.

It’s taken all these years since — and growing numbers of women in varied military roles — to change the minds of the VA and expand help to women. But more can be done, Moore insisted.

And she was joined by a chorus of veterans.

Arlette Andersson of Lisbon Falls argued for expansion of coverage to include homeopathic medicine. She complained that the phone system at Togus was difficult to navigate and said she was upset at her inability to get a woman doctor, particularly for specialties such as gynecology.

“I know for myself, personally speaking, I wouldn’t see a man,” Andersson said. Changing doctors can be almost as tough.

“They need to know that once we’re comfortable with a doctor, to change that can create a lot of stress,” she said. 

Maine’s 10,000 female veterans deserve the care, Moore insisted. More than 60 percent of Maine’s female veterans have never  enrolled with the VA, but it’s easy. It can be done online or by stopping at a VA office. Moore suggested that women use the VA’s 1010EZ form. And though care may be denied for such reasons as relation to service or income levels, situations and the law change.

“The law changes every year,” Moore said. “Just get the application done. Get it into the system.”

“I will foot stomp for all of you,” she said.

dhartill@sunjournal.com

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