Durbin Comments on the VA Inspector General's Report on the Marion VA Medical Center

Statement

Durbin Comments on the VA Inspector General's Report on the Marion VA Medical Center

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today made the following statement regarding a report by the Veterans Administration's Inspector General on the situation at the Marion VA Medical Center:

"Today's report from the VA Inspector General confirms what many of us in Illinois feared - the quality of medical care at the Marion VA Medical Center was substandard; hospital policies established to protect patients were ignored; and the assessments of medical personnel at the hospital were seriously deficient. As the inspectors who reviewed the Marion hospital put it, the quality of care at Marion was 'horrible.'

This morning, I spoke to the VA Secretary who informed me that an official Board of Inquiry was opened today and the board will consider further disciplinary action for medical personnel at Marion over the next 90 days.

The Inspector General's report contains a series of recommendations, which if implemented properly, should improve the quality of the VA's healthcare system nationwide. Many of these recommendations - including a national quality of care program and better screening of doctors who work at VA facilities - are contained in legislation I introduced last year. Now the question is whether or not the VA will make these changes on their own or whether Congress will need to step in.

While I appreciate the efforts of the Inspector General, I am disappointed that after a five-month investigation so little has been added to the original facts and the VA is still dragging its feet. The Marion VA Center is still awaiting critical personnel decisions by the Veterans Administration. And veterans downstate are waiting the slow turn of the bureaucratic wheels at the VA to resume the services they were promised. Our veterans and their families deserve more."

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