The Department of Veterans Affairs has eliminated unfilled healthcare roles it said were unnecessary, a department spokesperson said in a March 4 statement shared with Becker’s.
Every position removed was vacant, meaning no employees lost their jobs and overall personnel levels will not change, the spokesperson said. The department said the move will not affect veteran care or benefits.
While VA Secretary Doug Collins previously said most of the eliminated positions had been vacant for a year or more, an analysis by The New York Times of internal records found 73% of the removed medical roles — roughly 10,500 — had been filled at some point during 2025 or 2026. About 5% had been vacant since 2023 or earlier, according to the March 4 report.
The Times found the reductions included unfilled roles for more than 4,900 nurses and 1,500 physicians. In total, the department chose not to fill about 14,400 unfilled medical roles, equivalent to roughly 5% of the VA’s medical staff as of December, the newspaper reported.
A VA spokesperson previously told Becker’s in December that the agency planned to cut about 25,000 open and unfilled positions, describing them as “mostly COVID-era roles that are no longer necessary.”
The VA said the positions were unnecessary and in some cases lacked funding authority from Congress.
“For decades, VA hospitals and clinics had been creating jobs based on their needs at the time,” the spokesperson said. “However, as the needs of these facilities changed, the positions always remained, even if they were no longer filled, needed or funded.”
The department also pointed to operational improvements, including a 4.1% increase in direct care appointments in fiscal 2025 as well as the opening of 33 new healthcare clinics during President Donald Trump’s second term.
According to the VA, departmentwide vacancy rates for physicians and registered nurses were 13.3% and 8.4%, respectively, as of February 2026. The spokesperson said those rates are consistent with historical VA averages.
All VA healthcare facilities will continue hiring for positions they determine are needed, the department said.
For the first time, the VA has established a departmentwide process for maintaining organizational charts and staffing documents to better reflect current workforce needs, the spokesperson said.
“That means VA will have [an] accurate picture of its staffing needs across the country, and that puts us in a much better position to continue improving care for veterans, families, caregivers and survivors,” the spokesperson said.
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