More on Walter Reed

[ProSense]

in GD thread (with link to new JK blog post): Aftermath.

[whometense]

1. New press release:

Kerry Joins Obama, McCaskill To Improve Conditions At Walter Reed Hospital



Legislation will be aimed at helping patients with counseling, rehabilitation





WASHINGTON, DC – Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) announced today that he will co-sponsor legislation to improve the lives of recovering veterans at Walter Reed and other medical centers by eliminating paperwork and improving physical conditions. Kerry also said he would explore options for directing new funding to Walter Reed and to make immediate improvements to the buildings where veterans are housed. Kerry said he was “saddened” by a recent Washington Post series exposing poor sanitary conditions and other hurdles faced by injured veterans returning to the states after service in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with a story in the Army Times about 15 month delays facing vets seeking a physical evaluation. The sponsors of the legislation are Sens. Obama and McCaskill.



“We owe our returning veterans a debt of gratitude, not sub-standard treatment at an overcrowded medical facility,” said Kerry. “The Administration has consistently talked a big game but shortchanged the needs of veterans. How can the president talk about a troop escalation in Iraq while failing to keep faith with the Iraq War veterans we’ve already brought home? Brave men who have been blinded or lost a limb in Iraq should not be sitting in moldy, mouse-infested buildings. Period. It’s unacceptable and this Congress needs to do something about it.”





The legislation that Kerry is co-sponsoring would do the following:



* Simplify the paperwork process for recovering soldiers;
* Improve the ratio of caseworkers to recovering soldiers;
* Increase the training of caseworkers;
* Require more frequent IG inspections of hospital facilities and standards of care;
* Establish timelines and benchmarks for repairs to substandard facilities;
* Provide recovering soldiers with psychological counseling; and
* Require regular reporting to Congress on: the total number of recovering soldiers at military hospitals; the number of caseworkers; the average waiting time for treatment; and the number of suicide attempts, accidental deaths or drug overdoses.



###

[beachmom]

2. Not sure if anyone posted this, but here is an Air Force Times article

that contains info about this new bill and quotes:

http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2007/02/tnspatientcare070221/

The media reports of conditions at Walter Reed quickly caught the eye of lawmakers on Capitol Hill, with Democratic Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois, Claire McCaskill of Missouri and John Kerry of Massachusetts calling for legislation to improve the situation there.

“We owe our returning veterans a debt of gratitude, not substandard treatment at an overcrowded medical facility,” Kerry said in a statement. “The administration has consistently talked a big game but shortchanged the needs of veterans.”

snip

“Anecdotally, we’d heard some complaints before,” said Kerry spokesman Vincent Morris. “But the feeling was mixed because the care at Walter Reed is the best in the country. There was a groundswell of support for Walter Reed when the president announced plans to close it” as part of the latest round of base realignments and closures that was approved in 2005 and is now in motion.

The media coverage of the problems at Walter Reed, he said, brought the anecdotes into sharp focus.

“There are a lot of vets coming back who need help,” Morris said, adding that “Kerry saw those stories like everybody else.”