Soldiers face neglect, frustration, at army's top medical facility.

[Lady's Human]

Soldiers around family members are completely different from soldiers around other soldiers. I've said things to my father (who is a Korean war vet) and other soldiers that I would never say around the non-military members of my family.

Liz, my post wasn't defending the status quo. However, it is what it is. The people who control the purse strings of the military (congress) never give enough funding to base improvements, especially bases that are going away.

[mugsy]

Welcome to socialized medicine

[joycenalex]

from what i've read, not socialized medicine, just "support" services sold to a rich powerful and cheapa## company that did the least amount of work for the contract. in columbus, a few years back, something simular happened, the cleaning services were seperated out and contracted to a low bidder that did horrible job. blood, stool, vomit, hot and cold bugs IN SURGERY suites. complaints made, nothing done. some bright person called the paper and the feds...medicare, a well run cost efficient division of government, told the hospital owners and administrators, you're closed. the situation was fixed, fast, hospital reopened and sold to the ohio state university chain. it's called osu east today

[Edwina's Secretary]

As In These Times reported in a piece entitled "Dishonorable Discharge," back in 2003 "Even more than his father, and Ronald Reagan before him, Bush is cutting budgets for myriad programs intended to protect or improve the lives of veterans and active-duty soldiers." Among the cuts the Administration was pushing back then were $75 a month in "imminent danger pay" and a $150 family separation allowance, deemed by the White House to be "wasteful and unnecessary," In These Times reported. Democrats in Congress led the opposition to those cuts. But a Bush budget still included $3 billion in cuts to VA hospitals. "VA spending today averages $2,800 less per patient than nine years ago," In These Times pointed out.

<<shrug>>

Check the budget the [B]administration proposed for this year. Did it increase or decrease funding for medical care for veterans?????

[Lady's Human]

Regardless of what is proposed by the administration, Congress, not the White House, controls the purse strings. WRAMC has been on the chopping block for a long, long time, and as such no one has been willing to appropriate money for improvements.

As far as the mass of resignations/firings lately, I have one question on that score. Have there been any charges filed or UCMJ action taken against the officials who have resigned? Generals are not immune to prosecution. No charges=someone was fired to give the press the requisite head on a platter.

[Lady's Human]

BTW, the VA budget request from the Administration in 2006 was $70.8 Billion. The Administration request for 2008 is $87.6 Billion.

$17.6 Billion in funding increase can hardly be called a reduction in spending.

[cassiesmom]

I did my graduate nursing student rotations at the VA. I learned a TON and got way more out of it than I ever put in. The people were great - the doctors, nurses, therapists, especially patients. I met WW I and WW II veterans, Korea and Vietnam veterans. I was there two semesters and the summer quarter in between. It was just a wonderful experience all around.

My dad (who's a Korean war veteran) just enrolled with the VA about a year ago for health care. My mom's stepfather (a WW II veteran) received care through the VA for a number of years. There are some things about the VA system that work really well and deserve to be publicized so they can be duplicated. There are other things that work really badly that I wish could be overhauled. One thing that bugs me about the VA is that it's so huge and has so many responsibilities - health care, housing, insurance, even death and burial. Maybe it is too big to be effective. But Walter Reed is supposed to be top-notch and from what I am reading and seeing on TV, it is a long way from top-notch.

[Edwina's Secretary]

Generals are not immune to prosecution. No charges=someone was fired to give the press the requisite head on a platter.

I am certainly not an expert in this area...but in today's paper was an article that the only military who have been charge in the Abu Ghraib have been enlisted personnel. Was no one in charge or are they simply sacrifical lambs?

At least this time it was someone other than grunts falling on the proverbial sword.

And perhaps more than just the press need a head on a platter...maybe the public and the soldiers would like to see....I don't like heads on a platter...I would prefer to say....SOMEONE take responsibility.

BTW...the VA has an outstanding program for ensuring that doctors and nurses have the right information for the right patient. It uses realtime computer technology to allow access to medical charts and is a model that is being copied elsewhere.

[Lady's Human]

The article was wrong. BG Janis Karpinski, the commander of the MP Brigade that was in charge of Abu Ghirab, was reduced in rank to Colonel and retired.