Despite a nationwide push to lessen the wait times for veterans seeking health care, Veterans Affairs (VA) medical facilities across Texas have shown little progress.

Federal data gathered by The Associated Press has revealed that the number of patients facing long waits at Veterans Affairs facilities has not dropped.

The data showed that appointments completed at VA medical facilities from August 1 to February 28 failed to meet the health system's timeliness goal, which requires patients to be seen within 30 days.

The data showed that veterans across the nation waited at least 31 days for non-emergency care in 2.8% of the appointments made at Department of VA facilities during a recent seven-month period.

Media reports of VA treatment delays, preventable patient deaths and fraudulent bookkeeping prompted Congress and President Barack Obama to approve legislation last summer, which allows veterans to seek VA-covered care from private providers if appointment waits exceed 30 days.

During the timeframe studied by AP, the Fort Wayne center recorded 79,484 patient appointments and its wait-time performance ranked fifth best among 11 medical centers.

The center's percentages of patients who waited 31 to 60 days and 61 to 90 days for care also were better than the national averages.