PITTSBURGH — Two congressmen have criticized the Veterans Affairs Pittsburgh Healthcare System for keeping nearly 700 veterans on a waiting list for medical care, some for more than a year.

U.S. Reps. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., and Mike Doyle, D-Pa., issued a statement Thursday night calling on the VA to contact every veteran on the list within 48 hours so they can schedule initial appointments.

Pittsburgh VA spokesman Mark Ray said late Friday that so far they have attempted to contact 636 veterans, and the efforts will continue this weekend. Ray said the goal is to offer those veterans a primary care appointment within the next two weeks or at the time and place of their choosing. About 100 appointments have already been scheduled, and about 70 veterans weren’t interested in an immediate appointment.

Ray also said they will be offering extended primary care access hours on June 7 and June 14 at both main VA campuses in the Pittsburgh area.

The congressmen acknowledged that a recent audit by VA officials in Washington found “no evidence that there were two sets of books in Pittsburgh, one with the real wait times and one that made the wait times look a lot better.”

Still, the congressmen are pushing for an independent review of Pittsburgh’s waiting list “given the well-founded lack of trust veterans have in the VA right now.”