Hundreds of job vacancies at Chicago area VA hospitals are being wiped out as part of the Trump administration’s sweeping effort to cull the federal workforce, with many local workers warning the effort could exacerbate staffing shortages and lead to worse health care for veterans.The mass vacancy closing confirmed this week by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs follows the steady attrition resulting from the widespread job-cutting campaign of President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.Officials are aiming to close more than 400 open jobs at the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center on the Near West Side, and about 200 vacancies will be eliminated at the Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago, sources told the Sun-Times. They spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of workplace retaliation.Figures weren’t available for Hines VA near Broadview or Illinois’ other federal veteran health care facilities in downstate Marion and Danville. But vacancies are being eliminated nationwide, according to Pete Kasperowicz, press secretary for the federal Veterans Affairs Department.“No VA employees are being removed, and this will have zero impact on veteran care,” Kasperowicz said in an email. “VA is simply eliminating about 25,000 open and unfilled positions — mostly COVID-era roles that are no longer necessary. All of these positions are unfilled and most have not been filled for more than a year, underscoring how they are no longer needed.”VA facilities “are continuing to fill vacancies as needed,” he added.That’s not what Heather Fallon has seen on the ground as a registered nurse in Lovell’s intensive care unit, she said in her capacity as a steward with National Nurses United.“We are feeling profound effects from those vacancies already,” Fallon said, describing “unprecedented numbers of patients in the emergency department while working with fewer staff than we’ve worked with in a long time.”“We’re already at a breaking point in our staffing and we don’t have room to continue like this. It’s upsetting to all our nurses that the administration is not recognizing we’re already in a staffing crisis and this is our new norm,” Fallon said. The Capt. James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center located in North Chicago, Friday, March 28, 2025. Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times The Jesse Brown VA received a coveted five-star rating earlier this year from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, but a longtime employee questioned whether she and her colleagues can keep that up without reinforcements.“Eliminating 400-plus positions from the hospital system will directly affect veterans’ care. It concerns me greatly that it could affect our ability to maintain that level of care,” she said. “It kills morale. People get burnt out. It’s just not as good for your patients.”And it’s a bad environment for retaining employees, the Jesse Brown worker said. “It seems like every week there’s another talented person walking out the door. You have really good, highly specialized people who want to leave.” Related They were fired in the name of efficiency based on ‘a lie.’ Then the VA paid them not to work. Jesse Brown employs 2,988 people, according to Kasperowicz, but he didn’t say how that number has changed this year.The VA has shed more than 30,000 workers nationwide this year, from 470,411 at the end of 2024 down to 439,822 at the end of October, federal records show. The Trump administration initially had planned on cutting some 80,000 VA jobs.White House officials on Tuesday said 271,000 federal jobs have been cut since Trump took office, touting it as being at “the lowest level in over a decade.” U.S. Rep. Mike Bost pictured in July 2024.Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times Downstate U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski, a Democratic member of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, said she wants more transparency from the Trump administration on the “erosion of workforce.”“If they’re saying these vacancies are COVID-era, obsolete, then come forward with what the plan is and stop attacking your own workforce from within,” Budzinski said. “I do not believe for a second that veterans are not going to see a diminishment in services.”The House VA Committee is chaired by Republican southern Illinois Rep. Mike Bost, who said he supports the restructuring plan spearheaded by VA Sec. Doug Collins.“Change can be a good thing. Veterans and their families gave us a clear mandate last November that business as usual is not cutting it and we must cut through the bureaucracy, remove the red tape, and push VA forward,” Bost said in a statement. “Congress looks forward to working with my friend, Secretary Collins, and the entire Trump administration in the coming weeks and months to learn more about the implementation of this plan to ensure it does one thing: benefit veterans.” ...read more read less