Cleveland — A top federal official defended the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ record of providing access to veterans in need of health care but promised improvements and greater transparency in the future.

Speaking at a health care reporters’ conference Friday, VA Undersecretary for Health David Shulkin said same-day access to primary care and mental health care soon will be universally available throughout the health care system operated by the VA.

The department “is hoping to offer same-day appointments when it is medically necessary at all of its medical centers by the end of 2016,” according to a release distributed at Shulkin’s talk.

The VA also plans to roll out a new scheduling system, begin showing wait times in real time on its website and, by early 2017, a new smartphone app that would allow veterans to directly make their own appointments.

Veterans soon will be able to go for care at any VA hospital, he added.

Shulkin acknowledged there were problems with wait times in the VA system — a report released Monday, for instance, found that VA medical centers in White River Junction and Manchester had manipulated records to make the waiting period for appointments appear shorter than they actually were.

But Shulkin also said things had improved since the 2014 firestorm that followed revelations of manipulation of wait time statistics at the VA Medical Center in Phoenix.

“I don’t think there’s a recognition of the progress that’s been made in recent times,” he said.

Shulkin also said his agency did not receive proper credit for its work integrating mental health and substance abuse care with physical care.

“The VA consistently performs better than the private sector in many key measures,” he said.