Thursday, June 18, 2009

American Legion calls for Immediate Action, Today, Not Tomorrow !

The national commander of The American Legion backs our call for immediate action to correct the "systemic problem" fond by the VAOIG.

David K. Rehbein, national commander of The American Legion stated that the VAOIG report is "very disturbing", “It demonstrates a pattern of failure among medical personnel within veterans health facilities to acquire simple knowledge and follow uncomplicated procedures, thus possibly exposing vulnerable veterans to serious health risks.”

Mr. Rehbein went onto say that since “[v]eterans are being treated at these facilities every single hour of every single day. No matter what the reasons for this laxness in patient safety may be -- inadequate training, poor supervision or lack of accountability -- the problems must be rectified immediately – not tomorrow, but today!

Even though the Congressional committee has called for another review by the VAOIG in 90 days, where does that leave Vets scheduled for endoscopic procedures during that time?

Our personal view is that unless the procedure is deemed a medical emergency, ask your private doctor and see about having it postponed until the VA can guarantee 100 compliance with proper medical sterilization procedures.

We are also again calling for ever Vet to get a copy of their medical records and get checked by their private physician.

Why?
Because the VA found 30 other medical centers not in compliance in December 2008, thou they will not release these medical facility names and the VAOIG found over 50% of the 42 medical facilities they checked, some three months later, still not in compliance, they also have not released the names of the failing medical facilities.

So there are at least 50 VA medical facilities that have been found not in compliance, yet these exposed veterans are not being notified and the names of the offending medical facilities are not being released.

To me this is appears to amount to complicit negligence on the part of the VA, because without this knowledge every veterans must presume that they have been exposed to contaminated equipment.

Full article:
Earth Times