AP Features, March 11th, 2007
The Bush administration must examine all military and veterans' hospitals to see where the system has failed, one of the leaders of the presidential commission to investigate the problems said Sunday.
Donna Shalala, health secretary under President Clinton, said the commission will look at the system from the time "someone is hurt in Iraq and Afghanistan, all the way through, and to see not simply where the glitches are, but where the whole government has broken down."
President Bush last week announced he had ordered a comprehensive review of conditions at military and veterans' hospitals, which have been overwhelmed by injured troops from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The review came in the wake of disclosures of poor outpatient health care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, one of the nation's premier facilities for wounded members of the military.
Shalala, now president of the University of Miami, said soldiers want the government to fix Walter Reed, not assign blame. "They don't have time to waste while we debate who's responsible here. They want that care now, and they want it to be of the highest quality."
Co-chairman Bob Dole, the former Kansas senator, said more money may not be the answer.
"We want to take a look and see where the problems are and see if it can be fixed. It may not need more money," he said. "It just may need clarification or somehow better coordination between the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration.
Shalala and Dole spoke on "Late Edition" on CNN.
