Veterans Affairs head blasts administration over hospital incident

the hill ^ | 7/5/10 | Russell Berman

[Nachum]

The Democratic chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee lambasted the Obama administration over its handling of an incident at a St. Louis VA center in which more than 1,800 veterans were told they may have been exposed to HIV.

“It's outrageous, one, that this happens, but even worse is this secretive, almost cover-up mode that they go into when something like this happens,” Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.) said on CNN Monday.

The Department of Veterans Affairs last month sent a letter to 1,812 patients informing them that could have been exposed to HIV and other deadly viruses because of dental equipment that was insufficiently sterilized over a period of 13 months. The agency said the risk of infection was “extremely low” but it urged patients to return for blood tests.

[Biggirl]

And this is the thanks the vets get from the VA.

[chs68]

I recall days of coverage about the conditions of Walter Reed Hospital when President Bush was in office.

I haven't, though, heard very much about this.

I wonder why.

[matthew fuller]

It was here on FR a few days ago. Seems to be a case of not following specific instructions by performing a manual washing BEFORE using the machine wash........

[Uncle Ike]

” And this is the thanks the vets get from the VA. “

Over the course of the last two years, I’ve had life-threatening conditions (Cancer and Heart Condition) successfully treated by the VA Medical Center in Albuquerque - and I can’t repeat often enough that the quality of care I received was, without exception, excellent...

Where the VA system falls flat on its silly face is the fact that it is, after all, a Government Bureaucracy - and, while the medical treatment per se was wonderful, dealing with the front office is always a nightmare....

[olezip]

“It's outrageous, one, that this happens, but even worse is this secretive, almost cover-up mode that they go into when something like this happens,” Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.) said on CNN Monday.

When you dumb down the country with affirmative action, equal employment opportunity, quotas, diversity, reduced requirements for entrance to jobs, you end up where we are after decades of being "fair" instead of hiring the best person for the job.

I would not even know where to start to increase the competence of agencies to the levels they were in the early 1960s. Incompetence is so rampant that it may not be possible to recover in one generation.

[org.whodat]

Has the VA head there been fired yet?? Will anyone ever be punished?? Answer to both is Hell No.

[386wt]

My experiences with VA hospital/clinics has always been first class. Really good medical personnel, timely appointments, up to date modern equipment and very clean buildings.

I'd say the VA medical system is much better than the active duty medical system but to be fair, it's been a long time since I was on active duty.

[Wuli]

My “success” and “failure” rate with my VA Hospital experiences has shown me that it is most frequently the quality of the person or persons involved.

The right person or persons will be medical professionals first and foremost, even if necessarily in opposition to the bureaucracy, and the wrong persons will be bureaucrats (the bureaucratic mentality) with a license to practice medicine.

Both types of people - the doctor and the bureaucrat in the doctor’s smock - are encountered in almost any large medical enterprise, and I have encountered both at the VA and in private facilities as well.