Fort Huachuca sent out a letter to retirees this past week informing them that Raymond W. Bliss Army Health Center, the hospital on post, is having an issue managing their care due to a national shortage of healthcare providers in the commercial sector and military. The irony of this message is how they’ve had a board certified family physician employed on their installation who hasn’t been allowed to work since September 13, 2021.
MAJ Dr. Samuel Sigoloff, DO, was a practicing physician on Fort Huachuca until he was pulled from his position in September of 2021 for not receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.
Despite the mandate having been repealed in January of this year, Dr. Sigoloff was still not allowed to return to his practice. Sources I’ve spoken to state that he, “reports to his place of duty (which is in the basement of a building) at 0730 everyday. He waits until 1600 at which point he is allowed to leave. The clinic commander ordered that he only get thirty minutes for lunch (even though an hour is typical for all in the clinic).”
Apparently Fort Huachuca believes it’s more important to prevent trained and experienced doctors from practicing medicine rather than ensuring retirees and their family members receive medical care on post. Prior to the mandate, Dr. Sigoloff was the Medical Director of the clinic he worked in with nothing but glowing evaluations, but his objection to being a test subject for an unlicensed therapeutic turned him into a pariah of the medical field overnight. Watching the Army’s leadership continue to shoot themselves in the foot is more painful than humorous at this point, because it’s affecting thousands of veterans lives across the country.